Fraud

Complaint for the arrest of Darren Irwin and extradition from the USA to Canada to face charges of fraud.

Section 304 Petition for Assistance in Insolvency Proceedings in Grenada by Marcus Wide, as the Foreign Representative of Imperium Bank Ltd., at the U. S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

Section 304 Petition for Assistance in Insolvency Proceedings in the United Kingdom by Philip Lyon and Alistair Wood, as the Foreign Representatives of Imperial Consolidated Ltd., a.k.a. Imperial Consolidated Group Plc and Imperial Consolidated Plc, at the U. S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Russia into Sergey Nikolayevich Trunkin and others for alleged failure to return funds in foreign currency from abroad.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Australia into suspected tax fraud by Gordon Munro Walker.

A class action complaint has been filed against online currency trading firm GAIN Capital on behalf of at least 200 people allegedly defrauded out of $10 million in a forex scam first exposed in OffshoreAlert. GAIN Capital Inc., of New Jersey, is a defendant along with an independent broker, Sterling forex LLC, and Sterling forex's principal, Maurice Lewis Mills, both of Bellevue, Washington.

Goldman Sachs has sold its entire 22.9 per cent stake in AlphaStar Insurance, formerly Stirling Cooke, back to the company for five cents per share - about one third of its current trading price. Goldman was keen to sell so that its investment vehicles could take a write off before the end of the tax year and agreed to buy at a discount to avoid creating the appearance of self-dealing, AlphaStar's CEO, Stephen Crane, told InsideBermuda.

Offshore bank broker and author Jerome Schneider has made his first court appearance in the United States since being criminally indicted on 23 counts of fraud on December 19, 2002. Schneider was arraigned at the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of California on January 30 and pleaded not guilty. He immediately posted a $100,000 corporate surety bond.

Following the collapse of their insolvent financial group in St. Vincent & the Grenadines amid suspicions of fraud, the principals of Omnicorp Bank and its affiliates are starting a new investment scheme based in Cyprus. The management is the same as Omnicorp's and includes Canadians Nelson Bayford, Lloyd Merrifield and Gary L. Moore, the latter of whom settled an SEC stock fraud lawsuit in 2000 by agreeing to disgorge $24,175.

Offshore services provider Terry Neal, who has been criminally indicted in the United States for alleged tax evasion, said he expects to be charged with further offenses. "In court, the IRS was quite open about the fact that they hoped to amend the complaint with which they have charged me to include all kinds of nefarious acts, as yet unnamed," he told OffshoreAlert. "Of course, the real reason for the government's angst has much more to do with my critical writing regarding IRS abuse as set forth in numerous published newsletters, magazine articles and my several books."

An SEC lawsuit alleging fraud against Kenneth Lagonia, once listed as a director of DIAK Bank, which is licensed in Grenada but apparently based in St. Vincent, has been dismissed at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Imperial Consolidated co-founder Lincoln Fraser has staved off personal bankruptcy - at least for the time being - after a commercial rent debt of £16,599 (US$26,600) was paid at the eleventh hour. A petition to have Fraser declared bankrupt was due to be heard at Grimsby County Court, England on January 20, 2003. It did not proceed after payment in full was made earlier in the month, said a spokesman for the petitioning creditor, Nadan Properties Ltd., of London.

Belize-based offshore provider Grupo CAT appears to have gone out of business following the disappearance of its principal, Steve Saemmler Klein. Over the last month, the group's telephone lines have been disconnected and several of its web-sites are no longer accessible.

Bermuda-based Bank of Butterfield and Bahamas-based offshore provider Lions Gate Management have been named as defendants in the latest wave of lawsuits filed by the Bankruptcy Trustee of Evergreen Security, an unlicensed mutual fund which defrauded its investors of over $200 million. Twenty-two new actions were filed at the U. S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida, in Orlando, on January 23, 2003 and four previously-dismissed lawsuits have been reopened, said Bankruptcy Trustee Bill Cuthill.

A current scam being carried out in the name of European Federal Union Bank may be a successor to a similar fraud perpetrated by the British Bank of Trade & Commerce, a.k.a. British Bank of Commerce. The principals of both businesses are Costa Rica-based John W. Haas and Andover Garcia, according to a representative of clients claiming to have been defrauded of approximately $130,000 by EFUB.

Bermuda-based Bank of Butterfield is being sued for $115 million by the by the Bankruptcy Trustee of Evergreen Security, an unlicensed mutual fund which defrauded its investors of over $200 million. The Bank is being sued in its capacity as a custodian for Evergreen, as is Bear Stearns, which is a defendant in a separate action.

Trading on the over-the-counter market of shares in a company that Bermuda-based Lines Overseas Management was helping to do a reverse take-over of has been temporarily suspended pending an investigation by the Securities & Exchange Commission in the United States.

A civil complaint has been filed in the United States against failed Turks & Caicos Islands-based Atlas Financial Group, its auditor, KPMG, and several current or former officers. Among the defendants are the Managing Director of KPMG (TCI), Gary Brough, 40, who is British; and the accounting firm's former Director of Corporate Finance,Robert Gass, 38, who is Canadian. AFG founders Wayne Turner and his son, Scott Turner, who are both Canadian nationals, are also defendants.

A United States-based businessman set about cheating people he had defrauded once before while he was awaiting sentencing for the first crime, according to an SEC lawsuit. Frank Ray Johnson was convicted of fraud in 1999 after more than 9,000 investors were cheated out of millions of dollars in a scheme known as International Benevolent Fund Trust.

The Federal Trade Commission in the United States has filed six lawsuits at Federal courts against businesses that have been selling bogus "international driver's permits" over the Internet. "The defendants deceptively marketed bogus products," said John Beales III, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Second Amended Complaint in Endovasc Ltd. Inc. v. J.P. Turner & Co. LLC, KCM Group LLC, The Keshet Fund LP, Keshet LP, Nesher Ltd., Talbiya B. Investments Ltd., Balmore Funds SA, David Grin, LH Financial Services Corp., Laurus Master Fund Ltd., Laurus Capital Management LLC, Celeste Trust Reg, Patrick Power, John Clark, Abraham Grin, Talbiya Ltd., and Keshet Management Inc. at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Letter to the Editor of OffshoreAlert from Morison Anderson LLC.

First Superseding Indictment in USA v. Almon Glenn Braswell, Robert Bruce Miller, and William E. Frantz at the U. S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Letter to the Editor from Igor Toshchakov, of Igrok Trading International LLC.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence from Asia, Europe and Americas Bank - pursuant to a request for judicial assistance from the United Kingdom - for a criminal investigation into "a high Yield investment scheme in which 8 investors made investments after having been promised up to 1200% return on their 9 funds, only to see the funds disappear without any return".

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Mexico into Roberto Cortez for alleged forgery and fraud while an employee with Kvaerner E&C.

Class Action Complaint alleging fraud in Spencer Rawlins v. Sterling forex LLC, Maurice L. Mills, and GAIN Capital Inc. at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Investment vehicles registered in Bermuda, the Isle of Man and Delaware claim to have been cheated out of more than $9.5 million by the manager of an investment fund.The culprit was Sloane Robinson Investment (Cayman) Ltd., which was the General Partner and Manager of the S. R. Global International Fund L. P., according to a civil lawsuit.

The web-site of a sham bank purporting to be based in the Cayman Islands was taken down in December within 24 hours of OffshoreAlert emailing questions to the operators asking about their business.Citi Finance Corporation had set up a web-site at www.citifinancecorp.com whose design and content had clearly been plagiarized from an unrelated, bona fide bank, Bayshore Bank & Trust, of Barbados.

The Joint Liquidators of Bermuda-registered Carolina Reinsurance Ltd. have filed a civil lawsuit in the United States against the firm's shareholders and auditor.They are seeking damages for tens of millions of dollars of dividends they claim were taken out of the company when it was insolvent.

No fewer than six class action lawsuits were filed against Annuity & Life Re (Holdings) Ltd. in December, 2002 at federal court in Connecticut.The complaints, which will eventually be consolidated into one action, were filed less than a month after the firm announced it was re-stating its financial results for 2001, 2001 and the first half of 2002, causing its share price to plummet by as much as 44 per cent.

Citigroup has cast doubt on the legitimacy of a new investment scheme whose participants include two key players in the $345 million fraud perpetrated by the Imperial Consolidated Group.Edouardos Stamatiou and Robert Raven are involved in an attempt by United Financial Corporation S. A. to sell $110 million one-year Certificates of Deposit bearing annual interest of up to 14 per cent.

Offshore businessman Paul D. Lemmon, who was arrested in the widely-publicized 'Bermuda Short' operation, has entered into a plea bargain agreement with Federal prosecutors in Florida.Lemmon, a 40-year-old Canadian national, has agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud in a case in which he is a co-defendant with Mark Valentine.

A business associate of the now-closed Overseas Development Bank & Trust Ltd., of Dominica, has pleaded guilty to 20 felony charges, including securities fraud, money laundering and wire fraud.The charges relate to a multi-million dollar fraudulent trading program that Terry L. Dowdell operated through his Bahamas-registered firm, Vavasseur Corporation, starting in 1998.

Offshore promoter Jerome Schneider and his alleged business partner, Eric J. Witmeyer, are expected to be arraigned next week after they were criminally indicted in the United States.Although they were indicted on December 19, 2002, neither was required to put in a court appearance by year-end, which prosecutors said was due to the difficulties of the Holiday season.

Offshore services provider and asset protection author Terry Leroy Neal has been arrested and jailed in Oregon after a criminal complaint accused him of making false statements in his personal tax returns filed with the IRS.Neal was arrested on December 27, 2002—one day after a criminal complaint was filed against him at the United States District Court for the District of Oregon, in Portland, which is Neal's home-town.

Two businessmen who operated high yield investment programs in Costa Rica have been placed on Interpol's list of 'Wanted' fugitives.Costa Rican national Luis Enrique Villalobos Camacho, 62, is wanted for fraud and money laundering, while Luis Angel Milanes, 52, who has Cuban and United States citizenship, is wanted for fraud.

Former offshore fund manager Ian Renert might be facing criminal action in the United States to go along with a civil lawsuit alleging securities fraud that was brought against him by the SEC.Documents filed in the civil case indicate that Renert is also being investigated by the United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut.

Victims of a securities fraud perpetrated by Panama-based Morrison Cross Financial Investments are being contacted by a bogus law firm offering 'assistance' in recouping their investments.OffshoreAlert has obtained a copy of a letter sent to an MCFI client on November 26, 2002 by "Bruce Porter" of "Carter Sprott & Porter LLP", with an address and telephone number in Texas.

Ralph Glen Hines, who claims to have been a business partner of suspected con man Keem Kalfon, has been sentenced to eight years and four months in prison for perpetrating an investment fraud.Hines, 50, of Raleigh, North Carolina, was sentenced on December 17, 2002 at the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina after previously pleading guilty to two counts of fraud.

Two men previously exposed by OffshoreAlert for promoting and operating sham offshore credit unions have pleaded "no contest" to defrauding a 101-year-old woman out of more than $6 million.Dale A. Erickson, 53, and Darryl K. Willis, 63, entered into plea agreements with state prosecutors at Montana Third Judicial District Court, Powell County on December 16, 2002.

Findings of Fact on Abuse of Process Application in The Queen v. Brian Cunha, Donald Stewart, Ivan Burges, and Judith Donegan at the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands, Criminal Side.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Switzerland into Lothar Trinks and Christina Kaiser for alleged fraud, embezzlement, disloyal management of business, forgery of documents, and money laundering.

Advisory Warning against Mainlandexpress Bank by the British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission.

Lloyd's of London has banned Stirling Cooke Brown Insurance Brokers Ltd. from transacting any new business in the market, effective December 4, 2002.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Germany into Klaus Conradi, Sebastian Josef Hilger and Andreas Pfeiffer for alleged fraud.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner for a criminal investigation in Colombia into Luisa Fernanda Sanchez Diaz for suspected fraud involving the purchase of a vehicle from King Motor Company, in Miami, Florida.

Application for the appointment of a Commissioner to collect evidence for a criminal investigation in Switzerland into Jean-Claude Lacote and others for suspected fraud, forgery and money laundering.

Five weeks after being exposed in the September 30, 2002 edition of OffshoreAlert, Washington state based Sterling forex LLC has stopped operating and its clients have incurred substantial losses.The firm sent its clients a letter on November 15 stating that

ARGENTINA Switzerland to investigate Menem's bank accountsSwiss judge Christine Junod will investigate whether beleaguered former president Carlos Menem had money in the country's banking system. Until now, Menem has escaped prosecution in spite of the fact that he has been