Gary J. Gross took in more than $700,000 in commissions and fees, while causing investors to lose more than $2.7 million between 2004 and 2006

Gary J. Gross, who worked in the Boca Raton office of broker-dealer Axiom Capital Management, recommended unsuitable securities and engaged in unauthorized and often unsuitable trades in his customers' accounts.It is alleged that Gross took in more than $700,000 in commissions and fees, while causing investors to lose more than $2.7 million between 2004 and 2006.To cover up his misconduct, Gross, who now lives in Far Rockaway, N.Y., allegedly provided some customers with documents reflecting false account values, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.The SEC is seeking a permanent injunction against Gross, as well as attempting to get back the money he allegedly took along with interest and a fi...

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Posted in: SEC

Raymond Zwego,led a real estate investment company that purchased more than 50 area homes, obtaining more than $19 million in mortgages

Raymond Zwego, 60, led a real estate investment company that purchased more than 50 area homes, obtaining more than $19 million in mortgages by using straw buyers and falsified documents.Chief U.S. District Judge Fernando Gaitan also ordered Zwego to pay almost $5.6 million in restitution.In passing sentence, Gaitan noted that Zwego’s conduct has had a “long range and devastating impact on our community.”“It’s clear this society has to be protected from a predator like Mr. Zwego,” Gaitan said.Zwego’s scheme collapsed in 2006 when he attempted to purchase a home from former Jackson County Executive Katheryn Shields and her husband, lawyer Philip Cardarella. While the prosecutors charged the couple in the conspiracy, a federal jury subsequently found them not guilty of all charges.Shields and...

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Posted in: Jackson County

Frank L. Amodeo today pleaded guilty to defrauding the federal government out of at least $172 million in payroll taxes.

Frank L. Amodeo today pleaded guilty to defrauding the federal government out of at least $172 million in payroll taxes.He remains free on $500,000 bond, awaiting sentencing.It's not clear when Amodeo will be sentenced, but he faces a maximum of 25 years in prison and fines that could top $360 million.Amodeo is the formerly high-flying entrepreneur who created Mirabilis Ventures Inc., a conglomerate that bought up distressed companies, including those that provided payroll services.According to his plea deal, those subsidiaries collected payroll taxes but never passed them on to the Internal Revenue Service.The federal government sets the amount...

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Posted in: Mirabilis Ventures Inc.

Oman Ghana Trust Fund now has money nearing THREE TRILLION DOLLARS! That would be enough to rescue AIG and Lehman Brothers

Americans have a saying that there is a sucker born everyday. The statement speaks to the gullibility of some people to fall for schemes that are patently fraudulent, and should be avoided the same way one would avoid the plague. There is an ongoing attempt to scam the government and people of Ghana unless sensible people rise up to say no to con-men peddling falsehoods and lies. The damage will be done not only in terms of huge monetary loss, but our national prestige and international credibility will forever be tarnished, if Ghana were to fall for a scam currently being sold by remnants of John Ackah Blay Miezah’s hustlers.Of late, a group calling itself Friends of Oman Ghana Trust Fund (FOGTF) has embarked on a media blitz aimed at gaining the support of the government and people of Ghana...

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Posted in: Ghana

Dennis Raymond Sheffield, who pleaded guilty in June to 6 counts of bank fraud

Dennis Raymond Sheffield, who pleaded guilty in June to 6 counts of bank fraud, also will have to pay back $953,557 he obtained from Robertson Banking Co. in 2001 and 2002. "That's going to be difficult in light of his financial situation currently and other obligations," said defense lawyer Tommy Spina, who unsuccessfully argued for leniency. For the last three years, Sheffield has worked as a salesman for Knight Sign Industries in Tuscaloosa, earning $45,000 a year. Prior to that, Sheffield owned Tall Timber Inc. and had a longstanding relationship with Robertson Banking Co. That is how he was able to get loans in 2001 and 2002 for what turned out to be bogus deals. Sheffield, 47, falsely told the bank that he had a valuable timber sale contract and timber deeds signed by officials of the...

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Posted in: Robertson Banking Co

credit default swaps market as “ripe for fraud and manipulation”, saying that it was a forum for the shorting of corporate debt without the oversight

$58,000bn credit default swaps market as “ripe for fraud and manipulation”, saying that it was a forum for the shorting of corporate debt without the oversight imposed on cash markets.It was, of course, Congress that chose in 2000 not to extend regulation to OTC derivatives markets, as I noted in my column on Saturday. One of the most influential proponents of not regulating OTC derivatives was Alan Greenspan, then chairman of the Federal Reserve.Mr Greenspan told Congress in 2000 that regulation of the OTC derivatives market was not needed because:“OTC transactions in financial derivatives are not susceptible to - that is, easily influenced by - manipulation.”So then, the OTC derivatives market. Not susceptible to manipulation, or ripe for it? What a difference eight years, and a global financial...

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Posted in: $58,000bn credit default swaps market

Banks may accelerate efforts to move trading in the $62 trillion credit-default swaps market through a central clearinghouse

Banks may accelerate efforts to move trading in the $62 trillion credit-default swaps market through a central clearinghouse or to an exchange after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the credit downgrade of American International Group Inc. Lehman, the first major market-maker to go bankrupt in the decade-long history of the privately negotiated, unregulated business, may leave behind billions of dollars in potential losses for trading partners, according to Barclays Plc of London. No one knows exactly how much because there's no central exchange or system for recording trades. ``The fact that I can't tell you the notional value of derivatives contracts Lehman has written the day after a bankruptcy is a scary thing,'' Brian Yelvington, a strategist at New York-based bond...

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Posted in: $62 trillion credit-default swaps market

Counterfeit bank and credit cards used to steal funds from customer accounts.

banks in the UAE have slashed the daily cash withdrawal limit of ATM users by almost half after hackers, who police said were from Russia and Ukraine, used counterfeit bank and credit cards to steal funds from customer accounts.Some banks even blocked international use of ATM cards as a preventive measure while HSBC Bank temporarily reduced the daily withdrawal limit to Dh6,000 for premier card members and Dh4,000 for others as part of measures to contain the damage.As thousands of customers thronged ATM machines to change their card PINs (personal identification number) over the past three days, most banks in the UAE said they would continue...

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Posted in: HBOS

The Lehman collapse has changed the game of how regulators now deal with financial institutions, and potential bailouts are no longer an option.

Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers has far more serious implications for the world’s financial system, with possible consequences to the Gulf, than did the demise of Bear Stearns. The Lehman collapse has changed the game of how regulators now deal with financial institutions, and potential bailouts are no longer an option.The accelerated momentum of securitisation of mortgage loans in 2005 caused the subprime crisis, not the low interest rates when the Fed reduced Fed funds to 1 per cent. The sale of securities from credit pools had never reached such a level before. When US investment banks discovered the appetite of foreign institutions, commercial banks sped up their loans to uninformed borrowers to meet the soaring investor demand.Banks transferred to their trading books what cost too much...

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Posted in: future financial meltdown