IRS Criminal Investigations Unit

UPDATED 8:33 P.M. EDT U.S.A. There must be some long faces at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Secret Service today. That’s because two federal agents once assigned to a Task Force investigating the illicit Silk Road marketplace have been charged with federal crimes. Carl M. Force, 46, of Baltimore, was a DEA […]

“Defendant Trebor Company (Robert spelled backward) is a sole proprietorship owned by [Robert C. Brown Jr.] and is the name he has used for his ‘investment group.’” — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in civil complaint against Trebor and Brown, July 23, 2008 “Evidence at trial established that much of the investor money was funneled […]

Gregory Bartko, the Atlanta attorney and securities swindler, has been sentenced to 23 years in federal prison after being convicted of fraud in North Carolina. “Gregory Bartko targeted church members and made empty promises for big investment returns,” said Chris Briese, special agent in charge of the Charlotte Division of the FBI. “The FBI and […]

This one is almost indescribably bizarre . . . Ronald Williams, 48, was an inmate in various prisons in New York state between 2006 and 2010, federal prosecutors said. His mother told the Syracuse Post-Standard that her son was jailed in 2006 on charges of stealing a tractor-trailer full of “canned beans” off a street […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: Any number of ventures have tied themselves to claims of remarkable returns made possible by purchasing “advertising” products and services or agreeing to watch or receive “advertisements” in a closed environment. Longtime readers will recall that AdViewGlobal (AVG) came out of the gate in late 2008 and early 2009 by claiming what it […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: So, you recognize the power of the names of  Groupon and Facebook and want to trade on their magnetism to drive traffic to your purported “opportunity” — and you want to further sanitize your scheme by describing yourself as a philanthropist and trading on the name of a charity such as the American […]

In a case that drew comparisons to AdSurfDaily because of recidivism, undisclosed bankruptcies and ties to Utah, the three principal figures of the Philip R. Lochmiller Sr. real-estate Ponzi scheme in Colorado will be going to federal prison. Lochmiller Sr., 63, was found guilty in July after a 10-day trial in which the jurors returned […]

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: A Colorado husband and wife have been arrested by federal agents in Atlanta and will be returned to Denver to be prosecuted by special government counsel brought in from Kansas, authorities said. Why special counsel was appointed to oversee the prosecution of Richard and Marie Dalton was not immediately clear. […]

Thanh-Viet “Jeremy” Cao, the California Ponzi schemer later accused in Nevada of filing fraudulent liens for enormous sums against public officials and identified by the Anti-Defamation League as a “sovereign citizen,” once threatened to torture and kill his business partner and the partner’s wife and family, federal prosecutors said. To keep victims in a state […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: Although Donna Jones did not run an autosurf or online HYIP fraud, the case against her is instructive. Indeed, prosecutors said, Jones was an insider who was aware of the Ponzi scheme being conducted by her boss, Michael J. Park. And Jones took an active role in the scheme, encouraging customers to invest, […]

“They helped form a series of sham business entities and then promoted fraudulent debt elimination tactics intended for the sole purpose of concealing income from the IRS.” — Victor S. O. Song, chief, IRS Criminal Investigation As the U.S. Department of Agriculture was conducting a “review” of claims made by affiliates of a purported “grocery” […]