PatrickPretty.com

Tag: William P. Offord

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: KABOOM! 2 Connecticut Women Found Guilty In Cash-Gifting Pyramid Scheme

    breakingnews72URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: (2ND UPDATE 6:44 P.M. ET U.S.A.) Both of the defendants on trial in federal court in Connecticut in a cash-gifting pyramid scheme known as Women’s Gifting Tables have been found guilty of wire fraud and filing false tax returns.

    The jury returned the verdicts against Jill Platt, 65, and Donna Bello, 56, this afternoon. Both women live in Guilford. They were charged in May 2012. A third woman, Bettejane Hopkins, 66, of Essex, pleaded guilty.

    In returning the guilty verdicts in about two hours, the jury rejected defense contentions that the women believed their cash-gifting “program” that gathered $5,000 from each participant and used a food theme was legal.

    Prosecutors called it a fraud scheme designed to enrich some participants at the expense of others.

    “As the jury’s swift verdict of guilty on all counts makes clear, ‘Gifting Tables’ are pyramid schemes and illegal, plain and simple,” said U.S. Attorney David B. Fein. “These defendants enriched themselves while fraudulently misrepresenting material facts about the Gifting Tables and conspired to hide their income from the IRS. I commend the agents of IRS Criminal Investigation for their thorough investigation of this matter, which is ongoing.”

    Fein this afternoon threw down the gauntlet against cash-gifters.

    “During the trial, the jury heard evidence that other Gifting Tables continue to operate in Connecticut,” he said. “The jury’s verdict today is fair notice to anyone participating on Gifting Tables that any money received is taxable income and that they may be involved in an illegal pyramid scheme.”

    Included among the damning evidence against Platt and Bello was email correspondence, prosecutors said.

    “I’m pleased to see that the jury saw that the ultimate purpose was the enrichment of the defendants,” said William P. Offord, IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge of New England.

    From a statement late this afternoon by prosecutors (italics added):

    Evidence at trial included several emails, including an email sent by Platt in March 2009 that told a participant: “It’s sort of a joke that I refer to our freezer as the ATM.”  Later in March 2009, Bello complained to Hopkins and another individual about two recruits, stating: “They have had enough parties. Its [sic] costing us a small fortune in their food and wine delights. No more parties until they commit with the cash.”

    In June 2009, Bello sent an email that said “I am not a . . . saint . . . . I’m teaching you all how to make an extra 80 grand a year . . . . Isn’t that enough?”

    Platt and Bello were found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to defraud the IRS and a combined total of 15 counts of wire fraud. (Eleven against Bello and four against Platt.) Meanwhile, the jury found Bello guilty of two counts of filing a false tax return. Platt was found guilty of one count of filing a false tax return.

    Sentencing is set for May 15 before Chief U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson. The women potentially face years in prison.

    Cash-gifting schemes may surface as forms of affinity fraud. They often are targeted at people of faith, and purveyors may claim the “programs” are legal.

  • NEWS/UPDATES: Feds Say $900 Million Nevin Shapiro Ponzi ‘Perfect Example Of Greed Run Amok’; Colorado Charges Bela Geczy, Michael Kass With Racketeering In Fraud Case

    The acts of Nevin Shapiro — a Florida man arrested in New Jersey yesterday on charges of orchestrating a $900 million Ponzi scheme — represent a “perfect example of greed run amok,” an FBI agent said.

    Separately, a grand jury in Colorado has charged two men under the state’s organized-crime statute with operating an $18 million securities-fraud scheme that affected at least 270 investors.

    Arrested in Colorado were Bela Geczy, 57, of Longmont, and Michael Brian Kass, 48, of Boulder. Authorities said they orchestrated a massive Ponzi scheme involving domestic and offshore business opportunities.

    The court docket in the cases against Geczy and Kass shows two dozen felony counts, including violations of the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, securities fraud by fraud or deceit and securities fraud by untrue statement or omission.

    Like Florida, Minnesota, Washington, New York, South Carolina, California, Michigan and other states, Colorado has been plagued by Ponzi and fraud schemes. No fewer than five major Ponzi or financial fraud probes are under way in Colorado. Records suggest the highly complex frauds involved more than $100 million.

    In New York alone this week, two major financial-fraud cases were filed. The schemes involved in the neighborhood of $101.5 million, according to court filings. Meanwhile, U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan of the Western District of Washington outlined five major Ponzi probes in various states of completion in the Greater Seattle area. These cases involve tens of millions of dollars, according to records.

    At the same time, the main page of the website of U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones of the District of Minnesota features links to three major Ponzi cases in various stages of investigation. One of the cases is the Tom Petters’ Ponzi case. Petters was sentenced this month to 50 years in federal prison for presiding over a $3.65 billion fraud.

    Jones’ website also includes information on a Ponzi case involving at least $190 million. Trevor Cook pleaded guilty to mail fraud and tax evasion in the fraud earlier this month, and is awaiting sentencing. The website also includes information on the investigation into the business practices of Steve Renner in an alleged autosurf Ponzi scheme case involving tens of millions of dollars.

    Florida/New Jersey Cases Against Nevin Shapiro

    Shapiro, 41, was a prominent Miami Beach businessman. Authorities now say he was operating a Ponzi scheme since 2005 that rivaled the $1.2 billion Scott Rothstein scheme in dollar volume. Rothstein pleaded guilty in his massive fraud case earlier this year.

    Like Rothstein, Shapiro liked to chum around with sports figures and live large, according to records.

    Shapiro used “stolen funds to purchase a pair of diamond-studded handcuffs, which he gave as a gift to a prominent professional athlete,” prosecutors said. He also spent more than $400,000 for floor seats to watch the Miami Heat, a team in the NBA.

    At the same time, prosecutors said, he spent about $26,000 per month on mortgage payments on his $5.3 million residence in Miami Beach, while directing about $7,250 per month for payments on a $1.5 million dollar Riviera yacht and roughly $4,700 per month for the lease of a Mercedes-Benz.

    Viewed on a yearly basis, the payments on the residence, yacht and car alone consumed more than $450,000 — and yet Shapiro’s purported business produced no sales.

    A veteran FBI agent said the case was about naked greed.

    “This case is a perfect example of greed run amok,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Michael B. Ward. “In pursuit of wealth and a lifestyle he was otherwise unable to attain, Mr. Shapiro allegedly preyed upon unsuspecting investors looking to secure a safe place to maximize their investments.  Instead, their futures have been irrevocably damaged.”

    Although purportedly in the business of buying groceries in a lower-priced market and selling them wholesale in markets in which they would fetch higher prices, Shapiro’s company largely was a mirage that conducted virtually no legitimate business after 2004 and sustained itself by paying investors with the money of other investors, prosecutors said.

    “Nevin Shapiro is charged with tricking investors with false documents and false promises,” said U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman of the District of New Jersey. “He spent tens of millions of their money on gambling debts, lavish gifts and a luxury lifestyle built on a house of cards.”

    Authorities gave credit for the Shapiro criminal collar and an accompanying civil action by the SEC to the combined investigative efforts of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. President Obama formed the Task Force in November 2009.

    Shapiro, prosecutors said, diverted at least $38 million in investors’ funds for his own use, and investors now are out tens of millions of dollars.

    A girlfriend received goods totaling $116,000 from a charge card, which Shapiro used to rack up $640,000 in personal purchases, according to court records.

    The IRS is part of the investigative team in the Shapiro case.

    “Scammers, con artists and swindlers will do and say anything to get you to buy into their scheme,” stated William P. Offord, Special Agent in Charge, IRS-Criminal Investigation.

    Like his investigative colleagues in other Ponzi cases, Offord reuttered the age-old adage:

    “Remember the old cliche,” he said.  “If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.’”