Post by Djedi Maaur on Mar 29, 2008 15:25:15 GMT -5
JURY CONVICTS BARNES MAN OF STEALING us$2.5 MILLION FROM INVESTORS
MADISON, March 28, 2008 (AP) -- A Barnes man faces more than 100 years in prison for helping bilk investors out of $2.5 million, in part to finance a Grenada resort project.
A jury found Daniel Tepoel, 57, guilty Thursday evening of multiple federal wire and mail fraud charges as well as lying to the FBI after a four-day trial.
U.S. District Judge Barbara B. Crabb set Tepoel's sentencing hearing for June 4. He faces a maximum sentence of 145 years and $1.7 million in fines.
Tepoel and his partner, Garry Milosevich, ran a fraud scheme from 1997 until March of last year, prosecutors said.
They promised investors they had unique access to international trading programs between the world's top banks in which commodities called ''bank instruments'' are purchased and resold at a higher price.
The scam is common worldwide, Assistant U.S. Attorney Meredith Duchemin said. But no such trading programs or bank instruments exist, she said, adding that witnesses from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the World Bank testified as much during Tepoel's trial.
''If something seems too good to be true in the world of investments, it probably is,'' Duchemin said.
Tepoel and Milosevich used the money meant for the investments for travel and personal living expenses. They also gave some of the money to their families and purchased construction materials and equipment for a failed resort project in Grenada called Cinnamon Hills, prosecutors said.
The partners told investors they weren't getting the promised returns because of the impact the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks had on world money trading and someone had stole the money, prosecutors said. They also said the money was about to be released when the person who had to sign off dropped dead of a heart attack.
Crabb said Tepoel would ''lie to gain advantage in any situation.''
Milosevich also faces a litany of mail and wire fraud charges but remains at large, Duchemin said.
Morris Brown, listed as Tepoel's defense attorney in online court records, said Tepoel represented himself at trial and declined to comment.
MADISON, March 28, 2008 (AP) -- A Barnes man faces more than 100 years in prison for helping bilk investors out of $2.5 million, in part to finance a Grenada resort project.
A jury found Daniel Tepoel, 57, guilty Thursday evening of multiple federal wire and mail fraud charges as well as lying to the FBI after a four-day trial.
U.S. District Judge Barbara B. Crabb set Tepoel's sentencing hearing for June 4. He faces a maximum sentence of 145 years and $1.7 million in fines.
Tepoel and his partner, Garry Milosevich, ran a fraud scheme from 1997 until March of last year, prosecutors said.
They promised investors they had unique access to international trading programs between the world's top banks in which commodities called ''bank instruments'' are purchased and resold at a higher price.
The scam is common worldwide, Assistant U.S. Attorney Meredith Duchemin said. But no such trading programs or bank instruments exist, she said, adding that witnesses from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the World Bank testified as much during Tepoel's trial.
''If something seems too good to be true in the world of investments, it probably is,'' Duchemin said.
Tepoel and Milosevich used the money meant for the investments for travel and personal living expenses. They also gave some of the money to their families and purchased construction materials and equipment for a failed resort project in Grenada called Cinnamon Hills, prosecutors said.
The partners told investors they weren't getting the promised returns because of the impact the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks had on world money trading and someone had stole the money, prosecutors said. They also said the money was about to be released when the person who had to sign off dropped dead of a heart attack.
Crabb said Tepoel would ''lie to gain advantage in any situation.''
Milosevich also faces a litany of mail and wire fraud charges but remains at large, Duchemin said.
Morris Brown, listed as Tepoel's defense attorney in online court records, said Tepoel represented himself at trial and declined to comment.