Two California Business Owners Charged In 15-Year Ponzi Scheme
Joel Barry Gillis and Edward Wishner, two San Fernando Valley businessmen were charged this week with operating a Ponzi scheme that lasted fifteen years. Authorities believe the two received hundreds of millions of dollars from investors who believed their funds would be used to buy profitable automated teller machines. Gillis and Wishner face federal conspiracy […]
Final Former Madoff Aide Sentenced To 6 Years In Prison
JoAnn Crupi, the ex-Bernard Madoff aide who maintained the bank account for Madoff’s investment business was sentenced to six years imprisonment this week for her participation in Madoff’s Ponzi scheme that bilked investors from across the globe out of approximately twenty billion dollars. Crupi is now the fifth and final former Madoff aide to receive […]
NY Attorney Admits $5M Ponzi Scheme In Suicide Note; Suicide Attempt Failed
On November 3, Charles Bennett of Manhattan, New York jumped into the Hudson River in an attempt to commit suicide but was ultimately rescued by a New York Police Department SCUBA diver and taken to a hospital. Before the suicide attempt, however, Bennett had written a sixteen page suicide note, which he left in a […]
Former New York Islanders Owner Sentenced In Securities Fraud
Paul Greenwood, an ex-money manager who used to co-own the National Hockey League’s New York Islanders was sentenced to ten years in prison in connection to his role in a scheme that fraudulently earned about $554 million over more than a decade. Noting his cooperation with authorities, Greenwood hoped to get a lesser sentence. U.S. […]
Two Colorado Executives Charged With Securities Fraud
Chisan Chong and Steve Linnenkamp, executives at a Denver, Colorado Tech Center company called Direction Labs, were arrested after swindling an investor out of $848,000. According to court documents, Chong claimed to have software that would “take all the guesswork” out of making trades on domestic and foreign exchanges. He further asserted that the software […]
Florida Brothers Charged In TigerDirect Kickback Scheme
Gilbert and Carl Fiorentino, two brothers from Coral Gables, Florida, were charged in federal court this week with operating a scheme to acquire $9 million in kickbacks and other benefits to conceal their illicit profits from the IRS during their tenure as senior executives at Systemax Inc. and its TigerDirect Inc. subsidiary. The brothers were […]
Alabama Judge Dismisses Securities Fraud Suit Against Canadian CEO
Last week, an Alabama judge dismissed securities fraud charges against Gregory Aziz, the CEO of a Canadian company, after Aziz agreed to pay $21 million in damages to the Retirement Systems of Alabama, which had invested in the company’s plans to build a railcar plant in Colbert County. The RSA, which now owns the plant, […]
Florida Businessmen Plead Guilty To $19M Ponzi Scheme
SEC Whistleblower Overview of the SEC Whistleblower Program In 2010, Congress passed The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which amended the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by creating a Whistleblower Program to provide monetary incentives for individuals to come forward and report possible violations of the federal securities laws to the SEC. […]
NY Investment Fund Manager Pleads Guilty To $17M Securities Fraud
James Peister, an investment fund manager from St. James, New York, pleaded guilty in federal court this week to securities fraud, having run a Ponzi scheme that lasted almost a decade and bilked investors out of over $17 million. Peister will pay $9.6 million in restitution to his victims and will concede $17.9 million in […]
Texan Charged In First Bitcoin Securities Fraud Case
Trendon Shavers of McKinney, Texas, operator of Bitcoin Savings and Trust, was charged yesterday with defrauding investors in what authorities are calling the first federal criminal securities fraud case arising from a bitcoin-related Ponzi scheme. Shavers is charged with misappropriating roughly 146,000 of 764,000 bitcoins, at the time worth over $4.5 million, which he had […]