It’s annual pet scammer week! That’s a lie. But it sure feels like it. Eric Stein was charged with running an investment scam through Return-A-Pet LLC. Return-A-Pet was a New York company that allegedly facilitated the return of lost pets to their owners. Stein was out on supervised release for a previous investment fraud scheme and netted at least $500,000 ... Read More »

On Wednesday of last week word broke about the largest insider trading scheme involving single stock charged to date. Three defendants have pled guilty and are cooperating with the government’s investigating a scheme that allegedly netted more than $61.8 million in illegal profits. Charges were announced against seven investment professionals, who worked at three different hedge funds and two other ... Read More »

Bradley Stark, the fraudster defendant who represented himself at trail was convicted by a federal jury for deceiving investors about an investment scheme that involved more than 200 victims and more than $14 million. Following Stark’s five-day trial he has been convicted on all counts of an indictment charging him with seven counts of wire fraud and one count of ... Read More »

Sydney Jack Williams of Naples, Florida was sentenced today to a year and a day in prison for failing to report more than $12 million to the IRS in related commissions received in Nevin Shapiro’s $930 million Ponzi scheme. Williams previously plead guilty to an Information that charged him with one count of subscribing to a false tax return. During ... Read More »

Apparently an Illinois investment advisor, Steven Salutric, engaged in an investment fraud that swindled the retirement savings of 10 elderly clients to lose more than $4.26 million. Salutric was charged with one count wire fraud in a criminal information filed in late December of 2011. Apparently Salutric diverted clients’ funds to his personal business associates and to entities in which ... Read More »

An attorney for South Carolina health care device company, Signalife, was arrested last week at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on charges related to his alleged role in a multi-million dollar market manipulation fraud scheme. The indictment charges Mitchell Stein with one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, three counts of ... Read More »

Yesterday it was announced in Illinois that Edward Lynn Moskop was sentenced to the maximum statutory penalties of 240 months in prison for mail fraud and 120 months for money laundering. This 360 month (30 year sentence) sentence is to be served concurrently followed by three years supervised release after. The sentence follows Moskop’s guilty plea to the two count ... Read More »

I really don’t understand why criminals who have failed previous times in the past at committing a crime honestly think they have what it takes to commit it again. Last month Jon Edward Hankins was sentenced to prison on charges of wire fraud in connection with his scheme to lure investors to invest into his fraudulent hedge fund. Previously, Hankins ... Read More »

It was announced this week that Tyrone Gilliams, Jr., was indicted on charges of securities and wire fraud for operating a fraudulent United States Treasury Strips investment program. Treasury Strips are securities derived from United States Treasury Bonds. Gilliams is the owner of TL Gilliams, LLC. In the summer of 2010, Gilliams personally solicited $4 million dollars from an investor ... Read More »

Last Friday former chief accounting officer, Michael Rand, for Beazer Homes was convicted for seven crimes relating to an accounting fraud conspiracy at Beazer over a seven year time span along with document destruction and obstruction of justice. The government has been investigating Beazer for just over 3 and a half year (since March 2007) and in July of 2009 ... Read More »

It was announced last week that Bryan Keith Coats of Clayton, North Carolina plead guilty to his role in connection with the Black Diamoind Ponzi Scheme Investigation that resulted in a $40 million investment fraud conspiracy. Coats admitted to one count of conspiracy to commit commodities, securities, and wire fraud and one count of promotional money laundering conspiracy. According to ... Read More »

After running an investment fraud scheme and causing at least $200 million in losses, Eliyahu Weinstein was indicted last week with 45 charges. Weinstein has been charged one one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, 29 counts of wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud while on pretrial release, one count of bank fraud and 12 counts of money ... Read More »

Just a few days ago I reported on how former MetLife employee, Mark Edward Salyer of Tennessee, was responsible for the investment fraud scheme to the tune of $6 million between June of 2005 until June of 2007. Three days later, on October 6, 2011, Pensylvannia resident John Wosotowsky pleaded guilty to two counts (mail fraud and filing a false ... Read More »

Victor Cilli pleaded guilty on October 3, 2011 to an Information charge against him with one count of securities fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and one count of tax evasion. Cilli was a commodity pool operator and day trader in New Jersey and directed two schemes to defraud investors and financial institutions out of about $2 ... Read More »

In January 2011 Mark Edward Salyer of Tennessee was indicted on charges relating to an investment fraud scheme that he orchestrated from June of 2005 until November of 2007. According to the plea agreement filed with the court, Salyer was employed by MetLife Securities until 2007 and was responsible for the investment strategies regarding numerous IRA and brokerage accounts for ... Read More »