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Sandy Winick, Penny Stock Fraud, New York 2013
BROOKLYN, NY – Thai officials working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and U.S. Embassy personnel in Bangkok arrested alleged penny stock fraud kingpin Sandy Winick on a provisional arrest warrant in Bangkok, Thailand, to face extradition proceedings to the Eastern District of New York.
Earlier today, Thai officials working with the FBI and U.S. Embassy personnel in Bangkok arrested Gregory Curry, Winick’s alleged penny stock fraud co-defendant, on a provisional arrest warrant in Bangkok, Thailand, and he will also face extradition proceedings to the Eastern District of New York.
These arrests mark the latest successful chapter in an effort to address fraud in the over-the-counter securities markets. Previously, on August 13, 2013, the FBI arrested six men in New York, Arizona, New Jersey, Florida, and California – and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), in coordination with the FBI, arrested a seventh man on a provisional arrest warrant in Ontario, Canada – for engaging in this same international fraud conspiracy that spanned the globe from North America to Europe and Asia.
Each arrest resulted from an indictment charging the nine defendants with 24 counts of securities fraud, wire fraud, and false personation of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees in connection with the sale of securities and conspiracy. The indictment and arrests were announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and George Venizelos, Assistant Director-in-Charge, FBI, New York Field Office.
According to the indictment, Sandy Winick masterminded securities fraud and advance fee schemes that victimized investors in approximately 35 nations and generated more than $140 million through various brokerage and bank accounts under their control. Gregory Curry aided Winick in the securities fraud and advance fee schemes.
The indictment and arrests are the result of one of the largest international penny stock investigations ever conducted by the FBI and mark the unveiling of a multi-year, ongoing investigation, which included significant assistance from the RCMP, as well as from other U.S. law enforcement agencies and law enforcement authorities in England, as well as assistance from Thailand and China.
Defendant Sandy Winick is charged as the lead defendant in two separate but interrelated schemes. According to the indictment, the defendants first engaged in an international ‘pump and dump’ scheme during which they fraudulently ‘pumped up’ the share price of worthless penny stocks and then ‘dumped’ billions of shares of those stocks by unloading them on unsuspecting victim investors across the globe. Winick boasted about the superiority of the charged scheme compared to another more obvious scam, stating: “That deal is obviously a pump and dump. We know enough to be subtle.”
Second, the defendants operated boiler rooms in at least four countries that induced investors in penny stocks, including many of the same victims from the ‘pump and dump’ scheme, to pay advance fees that the defendants promised would enable the victim-investors to sell their penny stocks and recover losses that they incurred. In reality, the defendants simply stole the fees without providing any services, fraudulently extracting millions of additional dollars from their victims. Hundreds of victims live in Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island.
As for the group’s recent plans to open a call center in Brooklyn, New York, a co-defendant said, “I tell you what man . . . hitting the Americans would be like taking money from a baby.” Sandy Winick also openly boasted in intercepted phone calls about how he maintained fake passports in assumed names.
Key Facts
- State: New York
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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