Fraud

Superseding Indictment in USA vs. Serdar Kalaycioglu, Mario Turcotte, Richard Carson, and Sheldon Mickelson at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Panama into Demetrio R. De Silva for alleged fraud.

Indictment in USA v. Sylvia Hermann and Ali A. Yawar at the U. S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Complaint alleging securities fraud filed by the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission against Agora Inc., Pirate Investor, LLC and Frank Porter Stansberry at the U. S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in India into alleged bank fraud by M. Gopalakrishnan, an Executive director of Indian Bank, in Chennai, India; VR Chidambaram, R. Kumaraswamy, G. Balakrishnan and V. Rajkumar.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in the British Virgin Islands into alleged fraud and theft by Terry Turl regarding North South Yacht Charters.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Russia into Svetlana Danyukova, Lyudmila Matveeva, Keith Garner, America Unlimited Inc. and Kolibri-97 LLC for allegedly defrauding people who wanted to live and work in the United States.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Germany into Hans-Ulrich Schager, Christian Zogg, Marianna Martin and Alfred Sturwold for alleged fraud.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Colombia into Carlos Arturo Daza Hernandez for suspected fraud regarding the purchase of a car from Trex Corporation, of Miami, Florida.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Germany into Bodo August Schnabel and Ingrid Schnabel for alleged fraud.

The Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets has issued a public warning against several offshore firms involved in a "fine wine" trading scam. On January 23, 2003, the AFM advised investors "not to take up offers of securities" by Ocean International Marketing B.V., of Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Seed International Ltd., of the Cayman Islands; Cupidus.com Ltd. and Cupidus.com (Turks & Caicos) Ltd.

Asset protection firm Merrill Scott & Associates (in Receivership) helped a U. S.-based doctor hide millions of dollars from his creditors, including a woman dying from cancer, it has been alleged. MSA set up offshore structures for Dr. Thomas Shelton Powers in several offshore centers, including the Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Nevis and Panama, according to a complaint filed at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas on December 24, 2002.

The IRS and the United States Department of Justice have taken legal action to obtain records from MasterCard accounts at Bahamas-based Leadenhall Bank & Trust.

Investors in a British Virgin Islands-registered offshore hedge fund with ties to convicted or suspected fraudsters might be staring at losses totalling $400 million. That is the capital contribution believed to have gone into Lancer Offshore Inc., much of whose "assets" comprise interests in dubious, loss-making, penny stock firms whose shares are thinly-traded.

A man suspected of operating an investment scam based in Colorado and Belize has been criminally indicted in the United States. Kenneth Roy Weare, 56, of Lakewood, Colorado, was indicted on March 25, 2003 for wire fraud, mail fraud and engaging in Monetary Transactions in Property Derived from Unlawful Activity.

A United States judge has ordered offshore bank broker Jerome Schneider to turn over his records to government prosecutors, who are prosecuting him with fraud.

A former attorney with UK solicitors Radcliffes Le Brasseur is still awaiting sentencing in the United States six months after admitting his part in a scheme to defraud the IRS using offshore structures. Jeremy A. Franks pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio on September 27, 2002 and was released on bail of $100,000.

James Michael Dwyer, who until last year owned the White Sands Hotel, in Paget, Bermuda, was criminally indicted for alleged bank fraud on March 4, 2003 in his native New Jersey Dwyer, 61, has pleaded not guilty to the one count against him, which alleges that he lied when applying for a $16 million construction loan. He was released from custody on March 5 after satisfying the $250,000 bond requirement.

Bankruptcy petitions have been filed against Lincoln Fraser and Jared Brook, co-founders of the fraudulently-operated Imperial Consolidated Group, which collapsed owing more than $300 million. The petitions were filed at Grimsby County Court, England on March 7, 2003 and are scheduled to be heard on May 2, 2003, according to a court spokesperson.

A fugitive investment fraudster was arrested and deported to Costa Rica after being tracked down in Panama by two of his victims on March 8, 2003, according to a report in The Tico Times newspaper. Ian Calvert Bleasdale, 62, a British-born, naturalized Canadian, will now stand trial on five counts of fraud, reported the newspaper on March 14.

Two senior members of the tax evasion/investment fraud organization known as the Global Prosperity Group and the Institute of Global Prosperity, one of whom organized a conference in Bermuda in 1998, have pleaded guilty to tax evasion in the United States. Worryingly for tens of thousands of U. S. residents who are believed to be IGP clients, Margo E. Jordan and Shoshanna B. Szuch have agreed to co-operate with investigations into others in return for leniency.

Dozens of people in the United States and six other countries have been targeted in a massive police clampdown on alleged perpetrators of high yield investment frauds. Some of the people targeted in the clampdown were: Charles Ellis Halvorsen, Christopher Michael Taylor, William Joseph "Bill" Herisko, Leonard Kalish, Seymour "Sy" Taub, Mario Piccolino, Elson Quon Lui, Nicholas Roblee, a. k.a. Nicholas Richmond, Linda June Eaton, Joseph Lawrence Finney, Raj Mallick, Ronald Gaopalelwe Mokwena, Jack Louis Schrold, William Bruce Harper, John Cocoman, Gregory Smith, Larry Taylor, Rebecca Taylor, James "Doc" McCall, Victor Carl Vaccaro, Robert Downing II, Thomas Patterson, Antonius Maria Heijnen, Rudolfo Nieto, Henry Young, Charles Judson "Judd" Strader, Marion "Bowden" Atherton, James Joseph Honse, Harry Livingston, Alexander Moorehead Sr., Mark Scott Petkovich, Kenneth Samuel Harrison, Rosemary O'Connor, Garrett Oldhouse, Pamela Weeks Clark, Kitten Otto, William Patrick Bailey, Peter Johnson, Harmondev "Hardev" Bal, George Rieg, Alok Basudev, Kevin McKee, Sendjer Shefket, Yen Lung Chen, Tom Hauser, Karl Kortmeyer, and Marius Vermaak.

Offshore banker Clifford Pitt, who heads DIAK Bank, which is licensed in Grenada but appears to be managed in St. Vincent & the Grenadines, has been implicated in a fraudulent "high-yield" investment fraud. Pitt assisted Leon F. Harte and Norman Schmidt in a scheme to defraud Colorado-based individuals and institutions out of approximately $20 million, according to the U. S. Government.

A man whose public relations firm published several statements on behalf of the Imperial Consolidated Group that turned out to be false and now represents a spin-off firm peddling a similarly fraudulent investment product actually fancies himself as a moral-minded man of God. George Pitcher is training to become a religious minister in the UK who will, inter alia, advise journalists on morality and ethics, reported The Independent newspaper on March 25, 2003.

A dentist and his accomplice who defrauded $1.2 million from clients of their Grenada-licensed offshore shell bank that was capitalized with just $300 have entered into plea agreements in the United States. Dr. Noel E. H. Tait and Douglas E. Castle each pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud at the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on March 14 and March 27, 2003, respectively.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Panama into Leon Levy for alleged fraud to the detriment of Lilia De Campagna.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Panama into Samir Naser for alleged fraud.

Amended Complaint in IBP, Inc. and Foodbrands America, Inc. v. Andrew Joseph Zahn and Philip Sexauer at the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Ukraine into International Investment Corporation, a.k.a. Interinvest, for alleged tax evasion.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Bulgaria into Boyka Dimitrova Yanoucheva for suspected fraud.

Criminal Complaint and Arrest Warrant in USA v. Yen Lung Chen at the U. S. District Court for the District of South Carolina.

Criminal Complaint in USA v. Panageontis Papadakis at the U. S. District Court for the District of South Carolina.

Criminal complaint and arrest warrant against Sendjer Shefket for alleged investment fraud at the U. S. District Court for the District of South Carolina.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in the United Kingdom into Ram Nagrani and Import Trader Limited for suspected tax fraud.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Belgium into Global Security Management Association Inc. for alleged fraud.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in France into Bernard Oulie for alleged fraud and embezzlement in the wine industry.

Complaint for the arrest of Poon Sai-Wah and extradition from the USA to Kong Kong to face charges of fraud.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in the Czech Republic into Lubomir Neslusan for alleged fraud to the detriment of Debra Hermojino Wilson.

An unlisted investment fund claiming to have $9 billion of assets but operated from a private residence in Florida is suing an offshore insurer based on an island that purports not to license such firms.Florida registered Growth Fund Partnership Inc.

Lancer Offshore Inc., which is registered in the British Virgin Islands and listed on the Irish Stock Exchange, has brought a libel lawsuit against the New York Post - one month after notifying investors it was effectively suspending cash redemptions. The libel action was filed at New York State Supreme Court on February 14, 2003 after the Post published three negative articles about the Fund, which purports to have assets valued at $1 billion, and/or its principal, Michael Lauer.

A civil complaint has been filed against a group that has made a fortune by persuading U. S. citizens they are legally not required to pay income tax and by promoting fraudulent get-rich-quick schemes at conferences in offshore centers such as Aruba, Bermuda and the Bahamas. Plaintiff David Wayne Starkey claims he followed the tax advice only to end up being sentenced to eight months in prison in August, 2000 for willful failure to file a return.

Bahamas-based businessman George L. J. Wilson has been released from prison in the United States on a technicality three years into a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted in 1999 of multiple counts of conspiracy to commit money laundering, money laundering, mail fraud, and engaging in monetary transactions involving property derived from specified unlawful activity, following a jury trial at the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

An unregulated commodities trader who was involved with a Bahamas-based offshore firm accused last year of fraud has had similar allegations brought against him in the United States Robert L. Schillaci is a defendant in a civil lawsuit filed at the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on November 21, 2002.

The former Managing Director of Imperial Consolidated's offshore bank tried to remove its $500,000 security deposit with MasterCard International four months AFTER the bank went into provisional liquidation. That is an allegation contained in a petition filed at the U. S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on February 7, 2003 by Marcus Wide, Provisional Liquidator of Imperium Bank.

The Receiver of the Cash 4 Titles Ponzi scheme, which is estimated to have caused losses to investors of more than $300 million, has filed a lawsuit in the United States against three Bahamas-based firms. Leadenhall Bank and Trust Ltd., Axxess International Ltd. and Axxess International (Bahamas) Ltd. are defendants in an action filed at the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on November 27, 2002.

OffshoreAlert has obtained details of yet another unregistered securities offering being carried out by former officers of the Imperial Consolidated Group, including ex-British policeman Gary Alexander Lyons. Anglo Canadian Securities Inc., which is based in Canada and the UK, is raising funds for a personal injury litigation product that is virtually identical to one previously offered by Imperial.

A part owner of the latest offshore bank to be closed down in Dominica has accused regulators of acting on incorrect information supplied by disgruntled management who had been fired only days before. "The government has made a dirty deal with the old management," said Ferdinand Hoischen, a German lawyer who beneficially owns Banc Caribe with Jonas Persson, of Sweden. "This is very political."

An unregulated investment fund claiming to have $9 billion of assets but operated from a private residence in Florida is suing an offshore insurer based on an island that purports not to license such firms. Florida-registered Growth Fund Partnership Inc. is claiming breach of contract and fraud against Nevis-registered Condor Insurance Ltd. regarding a financing deal.

Bill Amos, a former officer with The Harris Organization financial services group of Panama, has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud in the United States. Amos, 49, whose full name is William Earl Amos Jr., admitted the charge last year and has already been sentenced, said a spokesman for the U. S. Attorney's Office in Alabama.

Two principals of a Grenada-licensed offshore bank whose directors included a former Governor-General, an ex-Prime Minister and two Justices of the Peace have been criminally charged in the United States. Noel E. H. Tait, a former staff dentist with the Department of Corrections in Washington D. C., and Douglas E. Castle were each charged with one count of wire fraud on January 30, 2003 at the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.