BRENT LEE NEWBOLD SENTENCED FOR DEFRAUDING INVESTORS IN A “GREEN” CLEANING PRODUCT COMPANY

FROM THE - CHRONICLES of Monte Friesner – Criminal & Intelligence Analyst and Consulaire for WANTED SA~

~Contributed by FBI ~

Granite Bay Man Sentenced for Defrauding Investors in a “Green” Cleaning Product Company

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Brent Lee Newbold, 58, of Granite Bay, was sentenced today to four years and three months in prison and ordered to pay more than $2.9 million in restitution for defrauding 13 individuals and a corporate investor, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.

Newbold was the chief executive officer of Holy Cow, a Rocklin-based business that produced a “green” cleaning product, marketed to stores such as Wal‑Mart, ACE Hardware, and Bed, Bath & Beyond. On September 3, 2015, he pleaded guilty to a scheme to defraud investors that ran from October 2007 to January 2010.

In sentencing, U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. noted that this was a classic “Ponzi scheme” in which Newbold regularly took money from investors and “used it to pay other investors, his wife, and his mortgage.” One victim who spoke at sentencing noted that Newbold was able to gain her trust, but in the end turned out to be “nothing more than a common thief.” Another victim who spoke at sentencing told the court that the financial hardships he suffered at Newbold’s hands played a role in ending his marriage.

“Brent Newbold lied not only to gain the trust of investors; he twisted the truth to use investor money for his personal expenses and conceal his scheme,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Monica Miller of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Sacramento field office. “Newbold's lies caused significant personal and financial hardship for his victims. Today's sentencing demonstrates to Newbold and would-be fraudsters that such lies have consequences. By working with partners such as IRS Criminal Investigation, the FBI continues its work to protect the investing public and uphold the integrity of the U.S. financial system.”

“Mr. Newbold raised money from investors through misrepresentations and false promises,” said Michael Batdorf, Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation. “Then, without authorization, he diverted investor funds to himself and others for his own personal benefit. This chain of events led the company into bankruptcy and to Mr. Newbold’s sentence today. Those who line their pockets with profits from these schemes should know they will not go undetected and will be held accountable for their actions.”

According to court documents, Newbold made a variety of misrepresentations to investors about the financial health of the company, including the company’s debt levels and how invested funds would be used. Based on Newbold’s claims, a corporate investor, Spence Enterprises, invested $2 million in Holy Cow.

Between July 2008 and January 2010, Newbold solicited 13 individual investors that were not disclosed to Spence Enterprises. Newbold falsely claimed that he was authorized to act on behalf of Holy Cow; that he owned Holy Cow; that he owned the majority of Holy Cow stock; and that Holy Cow was financially sound, stable and profitable. In some cases, Newbold provided his individual investors with false Holy Cow stock certificates, false Holy Cow purchase order reports, and corporate promissory notes.

In fact, Holy Cow bore a significant amount of debt, and Newbold continued to take additional debt related to Holy Cow. Newbold used investor funds for nonbusiness purposes, diverting it to himself and his wife, paying his mortgage, and paying previous investors. By December 2009, Spence Enterprises put Holy Cow into bankruptcy as a result of the unauthorized and undisclosed debt. The loss amount was over $2.9 million.

This case was the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Michael M. Beckwith prosecuted the case.

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ALLEN STANFORD LOSES LAST CHANCE AT FIFTH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS

FROM THE - CHRONICLES of Monte Friesner – Criminal & Intelligence Analyst and Consulaire for WANTED SA~
~Contributed & Written by Kenneth Rijock ~

The Ponzi schemer, Allen Stanford, whose appeal to the Fifth Circuit, of his criminal conviction and sentence, was unsuccessful, has lost his final bid to have that Court hear his case. His Petition for a Rehearing En Banc, meaning by all the judges of the Court, was denied.

The Court treated his application as a Petition for Panel Hearing, and ruled that, since no member of the panel, or a judge in regular active service of the Court, had requested that the Court be polled, on the Rehearing En Banc, his petition was therefore denied.

Stanford has now exhausted his appeals as a matter of right; the only option left to him now is filing a petition for a Writ of Certiorari, to the United States Supreme Court, where the chances that the Court will hear his case are statistically very remote.  

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SWITZERLAND & THE PALESTINIAN LIBERATION ORGANIZATION'S SECRET DEAL IS REVEALED

FROM THE - CHRONICLES of Monte Friesner – Criminal & Intelligence Analyst and Consulaire for WANTED SA~
~Contributed & Written by Kenneth Rijock ~

SECRET AGREEMENT BETWEEN SWITZERLAND AND PALESTINIAN TERRORISTS REVEALED

Swiss media has exposed details of a secret 1970 agreement, between the Government of Switzerland, and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), which was, at that time, engaged in committing violent terrorist acts throughout Europe, and was regarded as a terrorist organization. 

Switzerland concealed the agreement from the European Union, and the United States, which, had they known of its existence, might have severely affected diplomatic relations, for the Swiss provided assistance to the PLO, in exchange for a moratorium on terrorist acts within its territory.

Though all the details of the covert agreement are not known, as they reportedly are classified until 2020, Switzerland provided extensive diplomatic assistance to the PLO. Cash payments, which the West certainly regards as providing material support to terrorism, are believed to be one of the benefits included. One other is allowing terrorists to maintain bank accounts, and conduct their business, which gives rise to a number of terrorist financing issues. 

                                                

Some compliance officers may regard this latest black eye on Switzerland, following as it does the tax evasion scandal involving US taxpayers, as sufficient evidence to raise Country Risk. The issue of whether the Swiss have also cut deals with Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) groups has come up. Should US corporations conduct business with Swiss entities which are fronts for terrorists, not knowing their true beneficial owners, or illegal aims and goals, due to Swiss facilitation and cooperation, risk levels must rise.

Americans, many of who family members served in the Second World War, and still are disturbed when more details emerge about Swiss financial cooperation with Nazi Germany, will not be happy to learn that the Swiss Government chose to cooperate, facilitate, and finance, terrorists, fifty years ago, and such cooperation is most likely ongoing. Swiss bank accounts for terrorists does not go over well, even fourteen years after the events of 9/11.

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WANTED SA MANAGEMENT & STAFF WISH A HAPPY, HEALTHY AND PROSPEROUS HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016 TO ALL OUR CLIENTS, PATRONS & FRIENDS

MONEY LAUNDERING THROUGH LITIGATION FINANCE

FROM THE - CHRONICLES of Monte Friesner – Criminal & Intelligence Analyst and Consulaire for WANTED SA~
~Contributed & Written by Kenneth Rijock ~

Innovative money launderers are constantly on alert for new, and safe, methods of cleaning their clients' proceeds of crime, and of making a return on their "investment" in the process. It was only when a drug-laden smuggling vessel was seized off the coast of California, that US law enforcement learned about the abuse of Life Settlements, the secondary market for life insurance policies, by an insurance agent who was a laundryman in Colombia; we often learn too late about new avenues to launder illicit profits.

The proliferation of litigation financing, also known as litigation funding, in high-stakes civil lawsuits in the United States, should concern trial lawyers, not for ethical reasons, though there are valid issues, but because outside financing of their expensive major cases might be coming from a source of funds that they definitely do not want to accept; money launderers.

Litigation financing occurs in major products liability, personal injury, or several other types of lawsuits, especially where the defendant, or its insurer, has a deep pocket to defend the case. Depositions, pretrial discovery, motions, experts, consultants, investigations, all cost money, and some defense lawyers try to bankrupt litigants, through years of litigation, to force settlements, or even dismissal of cases against their clients.

It is logical that clients with limited means would seek out funding sources, to obtain non-recourse advance funding of pretrial, and trial, litigation costs. the problem is that the law has not yet caught up with this emerging field, and there is no requirement that the Source of Funds, or Beneficial Owner, behind such funding companies be disclosed, or obtained through due diligence. 

Since many offshore hedge funds are getting involved, why not domicile the "lenders" of the funds, to the bogus litigation finance company overseas as well. The lawyers, happy that their costs will be paid in advance, will not examine the golden goose.

Any good money launderer worth his salt could create a company that looks like a legitimate business, and borrows money, to lend out to law firms, for their clients' litigation finance needs. In truth and in fact, the captive litigation finance company is a shell, and it "borrows" funds from other shell companies owned and controlled by the money launderer, and funnels criminal proceeds into the lawsuit. 

After settlement of the case, a check, or wire transfer, from the winner's law firm will rarely, if ever, be subject to any regulatory, or law enforcement, scrutiny.

Only if the law firms conduct enhanced due diligence, in advance, will the wheat be separated from the straw, and illegitimate finding sources be unmasked, and refused. One wonders how many major civil cases have already been funded with drug profits.

DEUTSCHE BANK: THE REGULATORS FINALLY GET ONE RIGHT ON SANCTIONS VIOLATIONS

FROM THE - CHRONICLES of Monte Friesner – Criminal & Intelligence Analyst and Consulaire for WANTED SA~ ~Contributed & Written by Kenneth Rijock ~

We know that fining international banks for sanctions violations is not an effective deterrent, even when the civil fines & penalties are in the multi-million dollar range, for those in command see such costs as the cost of doing business, but I have seen one sanctions violations case recently, worthy of mention. 

Inasmuch as fines alone do not stop the big banks, it is much more effective to also hit back at the individuals themselves who are responsible for the organized sanctions violations. Make sure that the people who actually evaded sanctions are terminated, as publicly as possible.

The New York case, where a whopping $258m fine imposed upon Deutsche Bank AG, for doing business with blacklisted countries, also required the bank to discharge six of the bad actors. Additional players in the sanctions evasion process has already left the bank, and three others transferred, and banned from any duties involving the bank's American operations.

You have got to tip your hat the the New York State Department of Financial Services, for it has been at the forefront of effective enforcement of sanctions laws; it reportedly will receive $200m of the fine payment, at in my humble opinion, it is well earned.

I have a suggestion; name, shame and publish the photographs of all the individuals involved in sanctions evasion, Superintendent Albanese, so that bankers worldwide get the message, loud & clear. Bankers are still constantly accessing my article containing the photographs of BNP Paribas officers who were terminated in its scandal. Out all these financial thugs, please.

GARY LUNDGREN, FACING CLAIMS FROM TRUMP AND OTHERS, SHUTS DOWN IN PANAMA AND WASHINGTON

FROM THE - CHRONICLES Of Andrei Slavenkov Netherlands –  Analyst For Wanted SA ~ Contributed & Written By Kenneth Rijock ~

The Alaskan fraudster operating in anything-goes Panama Panama, Gary James Lundgren, reeling from the publicity generated by the high-profile case against him, filed by the Trump Organization, has begun closing down his dodgy operations. 

Lundgren, who has obviously tired of evading all the angry investors whom he has stopped paying an 8% per month return to, faces an uncertain future, due to multiple investigations reportedly pending against him. 

He refuses to personally meet clients, for fear that he will suffer physical harm at the hands of clients who have threatened him; he takes various, circuitous, routes to his office each day, and has increased security there.

In the Republic of Panama, his securities company, an unlicensed Panamanian branch of his US company, Interpacific Investors Services, has been ordered closed by the Government of Panama. In the United States, his business in Washington State is transferring all its existing clients to a national securities firm, and closing up its broker-dealer operations, as verified by a press release, making the announcement, though the company receiving this business may want to reexamine the situation.

The steep decline in new tenants, coming into Panama, due to the change in economic activity, and the public perception of a major increase in street crime, has resulted in a large number of vacant condominiums that he controls, meaning that his cash flow has been severely reduced. 

He has a number of civil suits pending against him in the Republic of Panama, and some of his victims, who allege he is guilty of sexual battery, are exploring their legal options.

Will the United States request the extradition of Mr. Lundgren, for securities violations, or will Panama do the honors, for the Petaquilla Mine scandal ? We cannot say, but his problems have multiplied exponentially in 2015.