Moazzam Ifzal Malik AKA Mark Malik

February 15, 2015- Long Island, New York Mark Malik (aka Moazzam Ifzal Malik) age 33, of Lahore Pakistan, was indicted and charged with stealing over $800,000 from investors in connection with a purported hedge funds Seven Sages Capital, Wall Street Creative Partners, American Bridge Investments and Wolf Hedge , according to N.Y. Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman.

Mr. Malik, whose full name is Moazzam Ifzal Malik, described himself on Twitter as a “CEO - Global Economist - Entrepreneur - Influencer.” He was actually a former waiter, security guard and New York traffic cop, according to the SEC. His claim to have graduated from the City University of New York was false, the SEC said: He has no higher-education degrees.

Ex-Hedge Fund Boss Aleksander Efrosman Who Fled U.S. Gets 15 Years for Fraud

Aleksander Efrosman, the former hedge-fund manager who fled the U.S. after swindling his clients out of $5 million and gambling away most of it at a casino, was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison.

Efrosman, 51, who was extradited from Poland and pleaded guilty to wire fraud in 2012, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in Brooklyn, New York, to 188 months behind bars and ordered to pay restitution of $4 million, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

“Efrosman has finally been held to account for his betrayal of his clients’ trust,” U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch in Brooklyn said in the statement. The former hedge-fund manager had been “globe-trotting to escape justice.”

A U.S. citizen, Efrosman was indicted in 2006 after fleeing in 2005. He traveled to Mexico, Panama and Poland, where he assumed the identity of Mikhail Grosman, using a fraudulent Russian passport, Lynch said.

Law enforcement authorities in Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland tracked and arrested Efrosman in Krakow, Poland, on May 28, 2010, according to the statement.

Efrosman controlled foreign-currency hedge funds Century Maxim Fund Inc. and AJR Capital Inc. As part of his plea, he admitted to running a scheme to cheat more than 100 clients out of $5 million in 2004 and 2005.

Foxwoods Gambling

Efrosman used customer money for his personal benefit and gambled more than $3 million at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, according to prosecutors.

The former hedge-fund manager’s federal public defender, Michael Schneider, had sought a sentence of about 10 years, citing Efrosman’s “undiagnosed mental illness in his criminal conduct, his failing health and the harsh nature of his confinement” in Poland and New York, according to a Jan. 10 letter filed with the court.

Efrosman’s gambling was evidence that his scheme wasn’t part of a “calculated plan to defraud investors, build his assets, and flee the country for his next fraud,” Schneider said in the letter.

“The hard truth for Mr. Efrosman is that as fast as AJR and Century Maxim took in money, he spent it, mostly on vices,” Schneider said in the report. “He recognizes that there is little redeeming in that story, but he looks forward to trying to redeem himself day by day.”

Profitable Trading

He told the investors he would put their money in the stock market and foreign-currency exchange market, according to prosecutors. He falsely said that he had a history of profitable trading and that he would use a “stop-loss” mechanism to ensure that no trade would lose more than 3 percent, the government said.

Formerly of Staten Island, New York, Efrosman fled the U.S. while on supervised release after leaving prison in April 2003 for a conviction in a foreign-exchange scheme, according to prosecutors. He pleaded guilty in that case after being extradited from France.

Efrosman ran a third investment scheme while in Panama, where he was joined by his wife and children, prosecutors said.

The case is U.S. v. Efrosman, 06-cr-00095, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).

Rajat Gupta sentenced to 2 years in prison and a $5 million fine

Rajat Gupta, a former Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble director and the former head of McKinsey & Co.'s Chicago office, was sentenced to two years in prison today for leaking boardroom secrets to former hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam, the New York Times reports.

Mr. Gupta also was Miles White's mentor back when the Abbott CEO was a young consultant at McKinsey. Mr. Gupta also once served on the University of Chicago's board of trustees.

The New York Times reports that Mr. Gupta, 63, "is the most prominent figure to face prison in the government's sweeping crackdown on insider trading."

The Securities and Exchange Commission brought civil fraud charges against Mr. Gupta in March 2011. The SEC alleged that, at the height of the financial crisis, Mr. Gupta passed along privileged financial information that helped enrich Mr. Rajaratnam, a former billionaire hedge fund manager who was the prime target of the criminal probe.

Last week, Mr. White asked Judge Jed Rakoff of Federal District Court in Manhattan to go easy on Mr. Gupta. “Rajat's contributions to global welfare — in business, in philanthropy, in education, in civil society — have been rivaled by very few people," Mr. White wrote in a sentencing memo.

Hedge Fund Manager Aleksander Efrosman Pleads Guilty to Forex Fraud

Aleksander Efrosman, the fund manager who fled the U.S. after being accused of swindling clients, admitted to running a scheme to cheat investors out of $5 million, including $3 million he spent at a casino.

Efrosman, 50, pleaded guilty today to wire fraud before U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in Brooklyn, New York, prosecutors said in an e-mailed statement. Efrosman, who controlled foreign-currency hedge funds Century Maxim Fund Inc. and AJR Capital Inc., had faced mail-fraud, wire-fraud and money-laundering charges.

A U.S. citizen, Efrosman was indicted in 2006 after fleeing in 2005. He traveled to Mexico, Panama and Poland, where he assumed the identity of Mikhail Grosman using a fraudulent Russian passport, said U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch in Brooklyn in the statement. He was arrested in Poland in May 2011 and extradited to the U.S. in August.
Efrosman stole from more than 100 clients who gave him $5 million in 2004 and 2005 to invest, prosecutors said. He gambled more than $3 million at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, according to prosecutors.

Stop-Loss Claim

He told the investors he would invest their money in the stock market and foreign currency exchange market, according to prosecutors. He falsely said that he had a history of profitable trading and that he would use a “stop-loss” mechanism to ensure that no trade would lose more than 3 percent, the government said.

Michael Schneider, an attorney for Efrosman, didn’t immediately respond to a voice-mail message seeking comment on the plea. The plea couldn’t immediately be confirmed through electronic court records.

Formerly of Staten Island, New York, Efrosman fled the U.S. while on supervised release after leaving prison in April 2003 for a conviction in a foreign-exchange scheme, according to prosecutors. He pleaded guilty in that case after being extradited from France.


Efrosman ran a third investment scheme while in Panama, where he was joined by his wife and children, according to an August letter from Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel A. Spector to U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew L. Carter.

The case is U.S. v. Efrosman, 06-cr-95, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).

Ex-Deloitte partner Flanagan pleads guilty to federal insider trading charges

Thomas Flanagan, a former vice chairman in the Chicago office of Deloitte LLP whose client list once included Warren Buffett, has pleaded guilty in federal court to insider trading charges tied to improper trades in stocks of large Chicago-based corporate clients whose audits he oversaw.

Mr. Flanagan, 64, of Chicago, pleaded guilty to one charge of securities fraud and admitted garnering profits totaling about $420,000 from trading in stocks of Deloitte clients including Deerfield-based Walgreen Co., Hoffman Estates-based Sears Holding Corp. and (at the time) Schaumburg-based Motorola Corp., according to the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago.

In 2010, Mr. Flanagan paid more than $1 million to settle a civil lawsuit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Mr. Flanagan, who worked for Deloitte for more than three decades and was a pillar of Chicago's business scene, was lead partner on Deloitte's engagements with Walgreen, Sears and Minneapolis-based Best Buy Co. Inc., according to the plea agreement. He also served on Deloitte's non-audit team for Motorola.

According to the plea agreement, Mr. Flanagan traded on advance knowledge of a weak fourth-quarter 2007 earnings result for Walgreen, as well as Walgreen's deal that year to buy Option Care Inc. He also traded on advance knowledge of weaker-than-expected sales for Motorola in the fourth quarter of 2007 and Sears' first-quarter 2008 earnings, which were worse than analysts predicted, according to the plea agreement.

Mr. Flanagan also tipped a relative, who traded on the information, obtaining at least $58,000 in profits, prosecutors said. That relative isn't being charged. The SEC previously identified that relative as Mr. Flanagan's son, Patrick.

Sentencing before U.S. District Judge Robert M. Dow Jr. is scheduled for Oct. 25. Conviction on securities fraud charges can mean up to 20 years in prison and up to $5 million in fines. The plea agreement between Mr. Flanagan and the government anticipates sentencing guidelines between 37 and 46 months in prison, and federal prosecutors will recommend a sentence at the low end of that range.

GlaxoSmithKline to pay $3 billion for health fraud

Washington - GlaxoSmithKline LLC will pay $3 billion and plead guilty to promoting two popular drugs - Paxil and Wellbutrin - for unapproved uses and to failing to disclose important safety information on a third drug - Avandia - in the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history, the Justice Department said Monday.

Accompanying the criminal case was a civil settlement in which the government said the company's improper marketing included providing doctors with expensive resort vacations, European hunting trips, high-paid speaking tours and even tickets to a Madonna concert.

Some of the settlement money will come to Wisconsin.

Prosecutors said GlaxoSmithKline illegally promoted Paxil for treating depression in children from April 1998 to August 2003, even though the FDA never approved it for anyone under age 18. The corporation also promoted Wellbutrin from January 1999 to December 2003 for weight loss, the treatment of sexual dysfunction, substance addictions and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, although it was approved only for treatment of major depressive disorder.

Justice Department officials also said that between 2001 and 2007 GlaxoSmithKline failed to report to the FDA on safety data from certain post-marketing studies and from two studies of the cardiovascular safety of the diabetes drug Avandia. Since 2007, the FDA has added warnings to the Avandia label to alert doctors about potential increased risk of congestive heart failure and heart attack.

SALES OF THE DRUGS

The $3 billion that GlaxoSmithKline LLC will pay in the largest health care fraud settlement in U.S. history represents only a portion of what the company made on the three drugs involved. Avandia racked up$10.4 billion in sales, Paxil brought in $11.6 billion, and Wellbutrin sales were $5.9 billion during the years covered by the settlement, according to IMS Health, a data group that consults for drug makers.

Stanford Gets 110 Years for Role in $7 Billion Swindle

 R. Allen Stanford, the Texas financier convicted of fleecing 30,000 investors from 113 countries in a $7 billion Ponzi scheme, was sentenced on Thursday to 110 years in jail.

A defiant Mr. Stanford, in a rambling statement to the court before the sentencing, intermittently fought back tears and shuffled papers, and said, “I’m not up here to ask for sympathy or forgiveness. I’m up here to tell you from my heart I didn’t run a Ponzi scheme.”

He blamed the government for the collapse of his businesses and asserted that “we could have paid off every depositor and still have substantial assets remaining.”

In response, federal prosecutor, William J. Stellmach, called Mr. Stanford’s version of events “obscene.” 

“This is a man utterly without remorse,” Mr. Stellmach said. “From beginning to end, he treated all of his victims as roadkill.” 

“He went after the middle class, including people who didn’t have money to lose. People have lost their homes. They have come out of retirement.”

A federal jury in March convicted Mr. Stanford of 13 out of 14 counts of fraud in connection with a worldwide scheme over more than two decades in which he offered fraudulent high-interest certificates of deposit at the Stanford International Bank, which was based on the Caribbean island of Antigua.

Prosecutors argued that Mr. Stanford had consistently lied to investors, promoting safe investments for money that he channeled into a luxurious lifestyle, a Swiss bank account and various business deals that almost never succeeded.  

Sept 2008 video

CFTC Sues 14 Forex Firms In Nationwide Sweep

Washington, DC - The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that it simultaneously filed 13 enforcement actions in Federal District Courts in Chicago, the District of Columbia, Kansas City and New York, alleging that 14 entities are illegally soliciting members of the public to engage in foreign currency (forex) transactions and that they are operating without being registered with the CFTC. 

Today’s actions are the first taken by the CFTC to enforce new forex regulations that became effective in October 2010.  These new regulations require entities that wish to participate in the forex market to register with the CFTC and abide by regulations intended to protect the public.  These regulations require that forex dealers take steps to protect investors, including maintaining capital and records, which will reduce risk and increase transparency.

The following companies were sued by the CFTC as part of this sweep:

1. EuroForex Development LLC, a Delaware LLC;
2. FIG Solutions Limited, Inc., a Delaware corporation;
3. ForInvest, a Delaware corporation;
4. FXOpen Investments Inc., a Delaware LLC;
5. FXPRICE, a Delaware LLC;
6. GIGFX, L.L.C., a Delaware company; 
7. InovaTrade, Inc., a company with purported offices in Florida;
8. InstaTrade Corporation d/b/a InstaForex, a British Virgin Islands company;
9. InvesttechFX Technologies, Inc., a Canadian corporation located in Toronto;
10. J&K Futures, Inc., a company with purported offices in California and New York;
11. Kingdom Forex Trading and Futures, Ltd., a Nevada company;
12. Prime Forex, LLC, a Delaware LLC;
13. Wall Street Brokers, LLC, a Delaware LLC; and
14. ZtradeFX LLC, a Connecticut LLC.

In the forex market, entities known as Retail Foreign Exchange Dealers (RFED) or Futures Commission Merchants (FCM) may buy foreign currency contracts from or sell foreign currency contracts to individual investors.  Under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC Regulations, an entity acting as an RFED or FCM must register with the Commission and abide by rules and regulations designed for investor protection, including those relating to minimum capital requirements, recordkeeping and compliance.  Further, with a few exceptions, such an entity also must be registered with the Commission if it solicits or accepts orders from US investors in connection with forex transactions conducted at an RFED or FCM.

In all but two of the complaints, the CFTC alleges that a defendant acted as an RFED; that is, it offered to take or took the opposite side of a customer’s forex transaction without being registered.  In the remaining two complaints, ZtradeFX LLC and FXPRICE, the CFTC alleges that the defendant solicited customers to place forex trades at an RFED without being registered as an Introducing Broker.  In every complaint, the CFTC alleges that the defendant solicited or accepted orders from US investors to enter into forex transactions in violation of the Act.  The CFTC has moved for preliminary injunctions preventing these defendants from operating unless and until they comply with the CEA and Commission Regulations.  

The CFTC’s complaints also seek civil monetary penalties, trading and registration bans, disgorgement and rescission. 

The CFTC strongly urges the public to check whether a company is registered before investing funds.  If a company is not registered, an investor should be wary of providing funds to that company. 

A company’s registration status can be found at: http://www.nfa.futures.org/basicnet/welcome.aspx

The CFTC also strongly urges members of the public to visit the below websites before investing money in the forex market:

CFTC Consumer Advisory: Forex Fraud: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

http://www.cftc.gov/enf/enf-forex.htm

Fraud Advisory from the CFTC: Foreign Currency Trading (Forex) Fraud

http://www.cftc.gov/ConsumerProtection/FraudAwarenessPrevention/CFTCFraudAdvisories/fraudadv_forex.html

Foreign Exchange Currency Fraud: CFTC/NASAA Investor Alert

http://www.cftc.gov/ConsumerProtection/FraudAwarenessPrevention/ForeignCurrencyTrading/cftcnasaaforexalert.html

Hedge Fund Manager on the Run From FBI Arrested in Poland

United States officials say an American fugitive wanted for money laundering and other financial fraud has been arrested in Poland, The Associated Press reported.

The American Embassy said Wednesday that Polish police arrested Aleksander Efrosman, a businessman from Staten Island, N.Y., in Krakow last weekend.

The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in a complaint filed in 2005 that Mr. Efrosman, who also goes by Alex Besser, stole about $5 million from customers of two fraudulent hedge funds that he had claimed to manage, Century Maxim Fund and AJR Capital.

Alexsander Efrosman, also known as Alex Besser, was a Russian immigrant

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/hedge-fund-manager-accused-of-fraud-arrested/

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/09/business/currency-trading-schemes-leave-unwary-investors-holding-the-bag.html

RBS lost £545m in alleged Goldman fraud

Royal Bank of Scotland was the biggest victim of the alleged sub-prime mortgage fraud orchestrated by Goldman Sachs and involving hedge fund Paulson & Co.

In August 2008, the part-nationalised lender paid Goldman $841m (£545m) to close its position on the single trade. According to the US Securities & Exchange Commission, "most of this money was subsequently paid to Paulson". RBS acquired the problem trade in 2007 after buying ABN Amro, the Dutch bank that ultimately proved the cause of its downfall.

RBS went on to post a £24bn loss in 2008, which led to a £45.5bn taxpayer bail-out that has left the state with an 84pc stake in the bank.

Following the SEC's accusations yesterday, RBS's lawyers were examining whether there would be any action to take against Goldman to recover losses.

RBS found itself bearing the bulk of the losses because ABN had written insurance against the "synthetic collateralised debt obligation (CDO)" at the centre of the alleged fraud.

However, according to the SEC, Goldman convinced investors to buy a poor quality CDO in the full expectation that it would collapse. Paulson, which was shorting the product, is alleged to have selected the sub-prime mortgage assets to be referenced by the "synthetic CDO" that were most likely to default.

Goldman then sold the CDO to investors to put someone on the other side of the trade without revealing Paulson's involvement. Investors would have believed the sub-prime assets to be high quality.

Goldman Sachs’s ‘Fabulous Fab’ Tourre Loses ‘Survivor’ Bet

(Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s “Fabulous Fab” saw himself as the “only potential survivor” when the housing market began to collapse in 2007. Instead he became the only person named when regulators sued the firm for fraud.

Fabrice Pierre Tourre, the 31-year-old French trader accused by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday of misleading investors in selling securities linked to mortgages, saw the wreckage coming early on.

“The whole building is about to collapse anytime now,” Tourre, an executive director at Goldman Sachs in London, wrote to a friend in a January 2007 e-mail, according to the SEC’s complaint. “Only potential survivor, the fabulous Fab... standing in the middle of all these complex, highly leveraged, exotic trades he created without necessarily understanding all of the implications of those monstruosities!!!”

Tourre was a vice president on the structured product correlation trading desk in New York at Goldman Sachs’s headquarters when the SEC claims he packaged mortgage bonds he knew were toxic into securities he sold to unwitting clients.

Tourre, who joined Goldman Sachs in July 2001, according to his LinkedIn profile, was “principally responsible” for creating and marketing a collateralized debt obligation known as Abacus 2007-AC1, the SEC said.

Paulson & Co.

According to the complaint, he knew hedge fund Paulson & Co. had played a “significant role” in selecting many of the securities used to create the CDOs and was betting against them. Tourre and Goldman didn’t tell Abacus investors about Paulson’s role, the SEC said. New York-based Paulson wasn’t accused of wrongdoing.

Goldman Sachs said in a statement that it lost more than $90 million because it had an investment in the deal, overwhelming the $15 million it made in fees. The firm said it provided “extensive disclosure” about the risk of the underlying mortgage securities.

Tourre received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics at Ecole Centrale Paris, one of France’s top engineering schools, in 2000, according to his LinkedIn profile. He graduated the next year from Stanford University in California with a master’s degree in operations research.

Before college, Tourre studied three years at Lycee Marie Curie, a French high school, according to JournalduNet, a professional networking Web site. Tourre spent two years at Lycee Henri IV and Lycee Louis Le Grand, two prep schools known for getting students into France’s top universities.

Tourre’s registration with the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority began in November 2008.

The SEC complaint described Tourre thusly:

Fabrice Tourre, age 31, is a registered representative with GS&Co. Tourre was the GS&Co employee principally responsible for the structuring and marketing of ABACUS 2007-AC1. Tourre worked as a Vice President on the structured product correlation trading desk at GS&Co headquarters in New York City during the relevant period. Tourre presently works in London as an Executive Director of Goldman Sachs International.

Tourre was principally responsible for ABACUS 2007-AC1. Tourre devised the transaction, prepared the marketing materials and communicated directly with investors. Tourre knew of Paulson’s undisclosed short interest and its role in the collateral selection process. Tourre also misled ACA into believing that Paulson invested approximately $200 million in the equity of ABACUS 2007-AC1 (a long position) and, accordingly, that Paulson’s interests in the collateral section process were aligned with ACA’s when in reality Paulson’s interests were sharply conflicting.

Later, the complaint describes the marketing challenges in selling the security:

At the same time, GS&Co recognized that market conditions were presenting challenges to the successful marketing of CDO transactions backed by mortgage-related securities. For example, portions of an email in French and English sent by Tourre to a friend on January 23, 2007 stated, in English translation where applicable: “More and more leverage in the system, The whole building is about to collapse anytime now…Only potential survivor, the fabulous Fab[rice Tourre]…standing in the middle of all these complex, highly leveraged, exotic trades he created without necessarily understanding all of the implications of those monstruosities!!!” Similarly, an email on February 11, 2007 to Tourre from the head of the GS&Co structured product correlation trading desk stated in part, “the cdo biz is dead we don’t have a lot of time left.”

SEC Charges Goldman Sachs With Fraud in Structuring and Marketing of CDO Tied to Subprime Mortgages

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit against Goldman Sachs for securities fraud on Friday, charging the bank with creating and selling mortgage-backed securities that were designed to fail.

According to the complaint, Goldman let John Paulson, a prominent hedge fund manager, select mortgage bonds that he wanted to bet against because they were most likely to lose value and packaged those bonds into the “Abacus” investments, which were sold to investors like pension funds. As those securities plunged in value, Goldman and the Paulson hedge fund made money on their negative bets, while the Goldman clients who bought the investments lost billions of dollars.

full text here http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2010/2010-59.htm

Goldman gets whacked, shares drop 10% on SEC charges

Shares of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. dropped 10% Friday after the Securities and Exchange Commission announced fraud charges against the company.

The SEC alleges Goldman (GS) and one of its executives defrauded investors "by misstating and omitting key facts about a financial product tied to subprime mortgages as the U.S. housing market was beginning to falter," the agency said in a statement.

Friday's sell-off in Goldman was the steepest decline in several months. The last time Goldman shares posted a daily loss of at least 10% was on April 20, 2009, according to FactSet Research.

The SEC's charges are related to a synthetic collateralized debt obligation, or CDO, that Goldman structured and marketed. The vehicles were among the complex derivatives that played a major role in the financial crisis.

Ex-WexTrust CEO pleads guilty to fraud

(AP) — The former president of a Chicago-based private equity firm WexTrust has pleaded guilty to conspiracy and securities fraud, admitting he misspent millions of dollars in investor money.

Steven Byers entered the guilty plea in federal court in Manhattan Tuesday. He agreed that millions of dollars raised from investors since at least 2003 was not used as promised.

Prosecutors say Byers and others took $9.2 million from investors to buy seven commercial properties but never bought them, using the money instead for other purposes. The 47-year-old Byers of Oak Brook, Ill., will be sentenced Sept. 13.

The plea agreement calls for a prison term of between 15 and 18 years in prison. He must forfeit $9.2 million.

Morgan Keegan accused of fraud by SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has begun legal proceedings against Morgan Keegan and Morgan Asset Management after alleging that the two firms deliberately misled investors.

According to the filing, internal prices of securities in funds managed by Morgan Asset were incorrectly made by Morgan Keegan.

This led to inaccurate net asset values (NAVs) being produced which resulted in shares being sold to investors with inflated prices, the regulator claimed.

The SEC explained that legal action is being taken against both firms and two employees.

Robert Khuzami, director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, said: “This scheme had two architects - a portfolio manager responsible for lies to investors about the true value of the assets in his funds, and a head of fund accounting who turned a blind eye to the fund's bogus valuation process.”

William Hicks, associate director in the SEC's Atlanta Regional Office, added: "This misconduct masked from investors the true impact of the subprime mortgage meltdown on these funds."

Morgan Keegan has denied the charges and claimed in a statement that the case is based on inaccurate data.

James Ritt, Morgan Keegan general counsel, said: “We have always held our obligations to our clients and to regulatory law with the utmost seriousness.”

Credit card hacker sentenced to 20 years in jail

Alberto Gonzalez has been jailed for 20 years for his role in stealing the details of millions of credit card users.

Alberto Gonzalez

The 28 year-old was found guilty on three counts of fraud after hacking into the computer systems of organisations including Heartland Payment Systems and 7-Eleven among many others.

Thefts perpetrated by the hacker, who was working as an informant for the US Secret Service when he carried out the crimes, were found to have cost banks and insurers up to $200 million.

Mr Gonzalez said: “I am guilty of these crimes ... I accept full responsibility for these actions.”

He received three 20-year sentences which will all run concurrently as a fine of $25,000 in addition to the jail term.

Up to $2.8 million is thought to have been amassed by the hacker, money which he spent on an apartment in Miami, a Tiffany ring for his partner and Rolex watches for friends and family.

He is also thought to have been drawing a $75,000 annual salary while working as an informant between 2003 and 2008.

The criminal’s accomplices, only known as Hacker One and Hacker Two, have not yet been caught by the authorities.

SEC Charges Sean David Morton, "America's Prophet", With Fraud

(Dow Jones)--The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a civil suit against "America's Prophet" Sean David Morton, alleging he lied about using his psychic expertise in investing more than $6 million from investors.

Morton, of Hermosa Beach Calif., solicited individuals over nationally syndicated radio broadcasts, public appearances and newsletters to put money into Delphi Associates Investment Group. He claimed his psychic ability would be used to invest in foreign currencies, the SEC said in a suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

In one newsletter, the SEC quoted Morton as writing "I called ALL the highs and lows of the market, giving EXACT DATES for rises and crashes over the last 14 years."

"I lost more money in this so-called 'investment scheme' than anyone," said the so-called "natural psychic" who runs the Delphi Investment Group out of his California office.

"The trader I worked with did not take my advice, saying it would be fiscally irresponsible, but I was right."

In court papers filed Thursday in Manhattan Federal Court, regulators said Morton is an old-fashioned con man who "falsely touted his historical success in psychically predicting the various rises and falls of the market."

He threw some of his investors' money to ordinary foreign currency trading firms, the suit said.

He allegedly funneled the rest to his own efforts, including a nonprofit called the Prophecy Research Institute, run by his wife, who's also named in the lawsuit.

Above: Sean David Morton accompanied by his championship Norwegian Forest Cat, Lestat.

Mr. Morton’s reach was broad. He solicited investors through a newsletter with 20,000 subscribers, run through his Delphi Investment Group; his Web site; and his frequent appearances on radio shows like “Coast to Coast,” a late-night syndicated program focused on the paranormal. He and his wife, Melissa, created three unregistered vehicles for their investors. One was called Magic Eight Ball Distribution.

His predictions weren’t particularly accurate, either. On a Nov. 21, 2001, radio broadcast, Mr. Morton predicted that the Dow Jones industrial average would rise between April and June of 2002, cresting at “12,000 or so” by December of that year. According to the S.E.C., the index fell that year, ending at 8,341.

from Morton's website at http://www.delphiassociates.org/about.html

About Sean David Morton

Sean is a natural psychic, trained Remote Viewer, intuitive consultant, investigative reporter, and accomplished award winning director, screenwriter and film and TV producer.

He is also Managing Trustee of the Prophecy Research Institute, which since March 1993 has published the monthly Delphi Associates Newsletter, which now has nearly 20,000 subscribers worldwide.

Sean uses his talents and abilities to predict future occurrences and trends such as earth changes, political events and stock market fluctuations. He has an astounding “hit rate”, or percentage of successes. His extreme accuracy has led radio host Art Bell to call him “America's Prophet! A modern day Nostradamus with more hits than Barry Bonds and the Russian Mafia!”

Sean has achieved international fame and recognition for his stunningly accurate predictions of future events. He gave exacts dates, magnitudes and epicenters for the 1989 San Francisco earthquake, then went on to predict natural catastrophes such as the ‘92 Landers and ‘94 Northridge earthquakes, and also the ‘95 quake in Kobe, Japan, to name only a few. He has made startling predictions on national radio and television, only to have those programs return to feature him when his predictions came true.

His political and economic predictions shocked the nation. Years in advance, he foresaw Clinton's impeachment, the controversy over the 2000 vote and the election of George W. Bush. He also predicted exact dates for the post-90’s decline of the DOW and NASDAQ, and has given the exact levels -- and timing-of their subsequent rise and fall.

“Chinese Warren Buffet” arrested in Toronto

A fund manager who called himself the “Chinese Warren Buffet” has been arrested in Toronto for running a Ponzi scheme which duped investors out of an estimated $30 million.

Weizhen Tang was arrested at Toronto’s airport and stands accused of defrauding as many as 100 clients, with one losing as much as $2.4 million.

The 51 year-old is thought to have operated the scheme between January 2006 and March 2009, which asked for a minimum commitment of $150,000 from investors.

He worked through online business Oversea Chinese Fund Limited Partnership and advertised opportunities in foreign exchanges, options and mutual funds across China and Hong Kong.

The investment adviser stands accused of securities fraud, illegal distributions of securities and unregistered trading in securities by the Ontario Securities Commission.

Mr Tang is due to appear in court on April 19th.

He was supposed to return to Canada from China on December 29th but failed to show.

An investigation into his activities was originally launched by the Toronto police during April 2009.

Hackers indicted for most sophisticated computer fraud ever

Eight eastern European hackers have been indicted on fraud charges in Atlanta.

The men, hailing from Russia, Moldova and Estonia, are alleged to have carried out more than $9 million in thefts from ATM machines around the world during November 2008.

It is said that the group compromised the data encryption used by RBS WorldPay to protect customer data.

Then, using 44 counterfeit payroll debit cards and a network of so-called "cashers", the hacking ring raised the account limits on compromised accounts before withdrawing money from more than 2,000 accounts in 280 locations over the space of 12 hours.

Sally Quillian Yates, acting United States attorney, said: "Last November, in just one day, an American credit card processor was hacked in perhaps the most sophisticated and organized computer fraud attack ever conducted."

She said that an unprecedented joint effort from international law enforcement agencies had been necessary to bring about the indictment of the alleged ringleaders of the fraud.

"This investigation has broken the back of one of the most sophisticated computer hacking rings in the world," Ms Yates stated.

In Washington DC her words were echoed by Lanny A Breur, assistant attorney general of the Criminal Division.

He reserved special praise for the Estonian authorities for their efforts in aiding the investigation and said the arrests had only been possible because of their close co-operation with the US.

In front of a Federal grand jury, the defendants were indicted on a total of sixteen charges.

The four men alleged to have masterminded the attack, Russian Victor Pleshchuk, Estonian Sergei Tsurikov, Moldovan Oleg Covelin and an unnamed fourth man, were charged with a variety of offences including computer fraud and aggravated identity theft.

The rest of the defendants stand accused of access device fraud.

Earlier this month, Federal authorities accused Ryan Harris, 26, from San Diego, of earning $1 million through selling free high-speed internet connections to companies.

It is alleged he achieved this through illegal cable modem hacking.

If convicted, he faces a potential 20 years in jail.

SEC Charges Ex - New Century Execs In Subprime Case

Reuters- Three former executives at now-bankrupt lender New Century Financial Corp were charged with fraud by U.S. securities regulators on Monday, the latest government effort to pursue wrongdoing in the subprime mortgage market.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused the three executives of trying to disguise New Century's rapidly deteriorating performance from investors while releasing weekly internal reports entitled "Storm Watch."

The 2007 failure of New Century, one of the largest independent providers of home loans to people with poor credit, rippled across the U.S. mortgage lending industry.

It was a forerunner of failures to come as lenders booked losses on billions of dollars of mortgages and mortgage-linked securities at the heart of the global financial crisis.

The SEC is seeking civil penalties and disgorgement of funds from former New Century Chief Executive Brad Morrice, former Chief Financial Officer Patti Dodge, and former Controller David Kenneally.

The action follows civil fraud and insider trading charges filed in June by the SEC against prominent banker Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide Financial, who built the largest U.S. mortgage lender.

The SEC said New Century sought to assure investors that its business was not at risk and failed to disclose dramatic increases in early loan defaults, loan repurchases and pending loan repurchase requests.