Crime

Authorities Search Thailand for Sandy Winick, Mastermind of a Plot that Bilked $140 Million from Investors in Asia, Europe and North America

Published

12 years ago

August 15, 2013

Bchcomber

Canadian Sandy Winick is believed to be hiding in Thailand

NEW YORK– Sandy Winick, from Stoney Creek Ontario Canada, is alleged to have “Masterminded” a plot that bilked $140 Million from investors in Asia, Europe and North America. The scheme, involving penny stocks sold through call centres, was staged by four Canadians and carried out with the help of five Americans, took place starting in 2008, U.S. authorities said.

The suspected mastermind of one of the largest penny stock fraud cases in history allegedly created shell corporations, used burner cell phones, conducted business across continents and operated under aliases like “Jerry Sarrano” and “Robin Cheer.”

United States Attorney Loretta Lynch outlined details of a penny stock fraud involving four Canadians and five Americans in New York this week.

Winick, 55, is believed to be hiding out in Thailand and is said to have worked out of China, Vietnam and the U.S., in addition to his native Canada.

The complex scheme, which involved pumping up the prices of worthless penny stocks and then unloading them on unsuspecting victims in as many as 35 countries, allegedly raked in more than $140 million (U.S.), the Federal Bureau of Investigation said Tuesday.

The U.S. Justice Department said seven suspects were arrested Tuesday in New York, Arizona, New Jersey, Florida, California and Ontario. However, Canadians Gregory Curry, 63, and alleged mastermind Sandy Winick, 55, of Stoney Creek remain at large.

“By his own admission we know that Sandy Winick is in Bangkok, Thailand,” Robert Nardoza, a public affairs officer for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, told the Star. He declined to comment on Curry’s whereabouts.

“We’re working with our partners to bring these individuals back to New York to face charges,” Nardoza said.

Four Canadians and five Americans are indicted on 24 charges, including securities fraud, wire fraud and false personation of Internal Revenue Service employees, according to a statement from the office of U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch in Brooklyn.

Two of the Canadian suspects — Gregory Ellis, 46, and Kolt Curry, 38 — have already been arrested. Kolt Curry is the son of Gregory Curry.

A map showing where call centres and victims involved with a penny stock fraud scheme rests on a stand before the announcement of the indictment of nine individuals involved in the scheme in New York on Tuesday. The scheme involved fraudulently inflating share prices and trading volumes of certain penny stocks

The American suspects are Gary Kershner, 72, Joseph Manfredonia, 45, Cort Poyner, 44, Songkram Roy Sahachaisere, 43, and William Seals, 51.

If convicted, the accused could face up to 20 years of imprisonment for each count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and securities fraud, as well as up to five years for conspiracy to commit securities fraud. The false personation charge could carry a three-year prison sentence.

Lawyers for the accused could not be reached immediately for comment.

The Justice Department said the arrests are the result of an investigation carried out over several years by the FBI and RCMP.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s office statement, the “pump and dump” scheme involved fraudulently inflating (“pumping up”) the share prices and the trading volumes of certain penny stocks and then “dumping” billions of essentially worthless shares on investors.

The indictment says the accused also operated a so-called “advance fee” scheme. They set up bogus call centres from which they would induce investors to pay fees up front for help in finding buyers for their shares in unattractive penny stocks. These services turned out to be non-existent.

“Where others saw citizens of the world, the defendants saw a pool of potential marks,” Lynch, the U.S. Attorney, said in a statement.

The indictment alleges both schemes — the “pump and dump” and the “advance fee” — were orchestrated by Winick, a native of Stoney Creek, Ont., who has lived in China, Thailand, Vietnam and the United States.

Canadian and U.S. authorities say his aliases include “Robin Cheer,” “Abdiel Vergara,” and “Jerry Sarrano.”

The indictment says the other Canadians charged in the case were primarily involved in running the fake services scheme.

Between January 2009 and July 2013, the men allegedly created a series of shell companies intended to convince unsuspecting investors that the Canadians were brokers who could sell their “nearly worthless” penny stocks for a profit, according to the indictment.

Posing as employees of these made-up companies, the men allegedly used call centres in Vietnam, Thailand and Canada to solicit business from clients as far afield as Kuwait, Panama and Singapore.

At times, they allegedly impersonated employees of the Internal Revenue Service — the U.S. tax collection agency — which is a crime under U.S. law.

The Canadians allegedly charged commissions and bogus regulatory fees in return for helping investors sell their stocks. But once they had been paid, the conspirators performed no services whatsoever, the indictment says.

In total, Ellis and the Currys stole $20 million from their victims through the scheme, according to a detention letter filed in a Brooklyn court Tuesday.

In one intercepted phone call, a partial transcript of which the U.S. Attorney released Tuesday, Kolt Curry can be heard boasting, “I had a guy send me a million dollars over one phone call … He actually sent me almost $2 million over the period of the hit. … I guess in the industry they coin it as a smash and grab.”

During another conversation captured on a phone tap and published by the U.S. Attorney, Kolt Curry discusses his plans for opening a call centre in New York: “I tell you what, man … hitting the Americans would be like taking money from a baby.”

Kolt Curry, a native of Aurora, Ont., was arrested a hotel in Garden City, N.Y. He was allegedly on his way to set up a fake call centre in Brooklyn.

The U.S. Attorney’s office, arguing that he’s a flight risk, obtained a court order Tuesday barring bail for Curry. He is being held in a Brooklyn jail.

In April, 2011, the Ontario Securities Commission issued a cease-trade order against a group of respondents that included Winick and the two Curries in connection with companies called BFM Industries and Liquid Gold International Corp.

“The BFM and Liquid Gold schemes I find to be entirely fraudulent. The activities involved in the schemes include unregistered trading and illegal distributions,” OSC commissioner James Carnwath wrote in his decision in the case, dated Aug. 7.

The OSC is slated to deliver its decision on sanctions and costs on Sept. 12.

In 2010, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission won a default judgment against Winick after he failed to respond to a complaint accusing him of creating dozens of shell companies under a public company he controlled, First Canadian American Holding Corp., later known as Blackout Media Corp.

The SEC accused Winick of creating 59 subsidiaries in Blackout with no legitimate business purpose other than to sell unregistered shares in the companies and pocket the proceeds.

According to court documents, he was ordered in 2012 to disgorge $3.2 million in ill-gotten gains and was permanently barred from the penny stock market, among other penalties.

Blackout is among several companies mentioned in Tuesday’s indictment.

Crime

Police Officer Being Ordained at Temple Arrested for Running Scam Call Center

Published

7 months ago

July 20, 2024

Thomas3940

Police Officer Being Ordained at Temple Arrested

Police in Northern Thailand have arrested a fellow officer as he was being ordained at a temple in Ngao district of neighbouring Lampang province.

Pol Lt Col Bandit Khonkan chief inspector from the Hang Dong police station was disrobed and taken to the Chang Puak station in Chiang Mai. He was arrested on charges of running a call centre scam gang in Chiang Mai Province.

According to Thai Media Chiang Mai Provincial Police Region 5 obtained an arrest warrant for Pol Lt Col Bandit on Friday from the Chiang Mai Provincial Court for procuring illegal telecom equipment, setting up a station and using public airwaves to run a telecommunications business without permission.

Pol Lt Col Bandit reportedly told investigators that he was not the ringleader and was only a member of the gang with Chinese partners.

His arrest followed the apprehension of his 26-year-old daughter, Miss Wanuchapond, 26, and three others during raids at three housing projects in Chiang Mai on Friday, Pol Maj Gen Weerachon Boontawee, deputy chief of Provincial Police Region 5 told Thai media.

During the raids police police discovered around 12 GSM gateways, or SIM boxes, which are devices used for converting cellular networks into mobile phone numbers used domestically.

The chief inspectors daughter Miss Wanuchapond told the arresting officers that she was paid 8,000 baht a month at each of the three locations for renting thr rooms and monitoring devices.

She claimed she had no idea what the devices were and accepted the job because the pay was attractive.

Police investigators working with telecom regulators used a special tracking device to monitor the gang’s communications and learned that its base was in Myanmar opposite Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai.

The call center gang used the GSM gateways to make calls over the internet to scam people in Thailand out of million of baht.

The GSM gateways transmitting signals via SIM boxes to convert them into domestic phone numbers, duping victims into thinking they were being called from Thai government agencies.

Pol Maj Gen Weerachon said that each SIM box held 32 SIM cards, with a capacity of up to 300,000 calls a month. The seized devices had made fraudulent calls over 3.6 million times.

He said the their investigation is ongoing and they are working to track down the remaining conspirators, including Chinese and other Thai suspects.

Authorities are still deciding whether Pol Lt Col Bandit will be dismissed from the force, he said, adding that so far, no other officers are known to have been involved.

Police in Chiang Rai Launch Crackdown on Cyber Criminals in Golden Triangle

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Settha Thavisin has authorized the establishment of an emergency cyber center operated by the Royal Thai Police to combat transnational crimes committed by call center gangs along the Thai border in Chiang Rai province.

On July 19, Prime Minister Settha Thavisin directed the Center to combat information technology crimes. The Royal Thai Police (Royal Thai Police) will crack down on call center gangs in Myanmar, Laos, and along the border.

His directive comes as call center gangs ratchet up their scams to defraud people of their money, causing concern among Thais and jeopardizing the country’s economic and social stability.

Related Police News:

Machete Wielding Man Shot an Killed by Police in Chiang Rai

https://www.chiangraitimes.com/chiangrai-news/machete-wielding-man-shot-an-killed-by-police-in-chiang-rai/

Crime

Thai Immigration Police Arrest Colombian Tourists Over Home Invasions

Published

7 months ago

July 20, 2024

Thomas3940

Thai Immigration Police Arrest Colombian Tourist

Immigration police officers have arrested four Colombian nationals in connection with a series of home burglaries at luxury housing complexes in the Bangkok metropolitan area and Chiang Buri Province.

Pol Maj Gen Panthana Nuchanart, deputy commissioner of the Immigration Bureau, told a press briefing that three of the suspects were apprehended in Nonthaburi Province and the fourth in South Pattaya, Chon Buri Province.

According to the Bangkok Post, the Colombians were charged with stealing conspiracy and seized around 3 million baht (US$82,500.00).

According to Pol Maj Gen Panthana, the criminals rode motorcycles through housing estates, scoping out the properties and waiting for the owners to depart before committing their crimes.

He stated that all four of the accused denied any involvement in the home break-ins, but the arresting squad discovered evidence that implicated them.

Police called to home invasion

Meanwhile, police were dispatched to a luxury housing development in Tambon Nong Prue, Chonburi Province, after a Chinese man was attacked during a house invasion.

When they arrived, they discovered the house owner, Mr. Qian Peng Yi, visibly scared and with marks from being tied up with a cable. He informed police that three Chinese males broke into his home at 9 p.m., one of whom brandished a gun at him and directed him to his bedroom.

They bound his hands and feet, gagged him with fabric, taped his head, and forced him into the bed. The intruders then attempted to compel him into transferring 10 million baht in cryptocurrencies to them, endangering the life of his 33-year-old cousin who was in a second-floor bedroom.

While they scoured the house in search of riches, Mr. Peng Yi managed to flee and hide; he subsequently observed them leave with his cousin. Officials investigated the property and analyzed security camera footage from the incident and surrounding areas.

Around 9 p.m., a 30-year-old van driver came at the Bang Lamung police station after being contacted by an agency to carry Chinese customers from Pattaya to Suvarnabhumi Airport.

The driver informed authorities that he was supposed to pick them up at a motel about a kilometer from the Chinese businessman’s home. He then drove them to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport, arriving at 1 a.m. and receiving 1,800 baht.

The driver took a snapshot of the group smoking at the airport gate and identified one of them as the victim’s cousin. Police suspected coordination between her and the three suspects in her cousin’s heist, who all departed Thailand on the same aircraft.

Other Bangkok News:

Police in Bangkok Discover Six Vietnamese Tourists Dead in 5 Star Hotel

Police in Bangkok Discover Six Vietnamese Tourists Dead in 5 Star Hotel

Crime

Son of Thailand’s Leading Legal Scholar on Corruption Arrested for Running Online Gambling Network

Published

7 months ago

July 17, 2024

Thomas3940

The son of a former senator and leading economist and expert on corruption and gambling in Thailand has been arrested for on charges of running an online gambling network and its payment system.

Police from Thailand’s Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) have confiscated assets worth more than (US$ 11.1 million) 400 million baht.

Narote Piriyarangsan, 33, was arrested following crackdowns in three sites around the city, according to Pol Maj Gen Athip Pongsiwapai, commander of the police Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD).

Mr Narote’s father, Sangsit Piriyarangsan, is an economist who has written articles and books about corruption and gambling. He was one of the appointed senators that were investigating the government’s intention to legalize casino gaming before their terms expired.

Police also detained 39-year-old Narayut Narakaew, the owner of the gambling website 69pgslot.com. The Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the couple for operating an internet gambling service and money laundering.

According to the Bangkok Post, police seized two desktop computers, one laptop computer, 14 mobile phones, 21 bank passbooks, 53 ATM cards, and four high-end cars — a Ferrari 926 GTS, an Aston Martin, a Lexus, and a Subaru — totaling more than 400 million baht.

Police launched the inquiry after discovering the online gambling site, which accepted funds via an automatic deposit-withdrawal system through bank accounts and deposits in the AskMePay system. Players scanned the VPay QR code as well as the QR codes for Heng Online 888 or Heng Pay Company.

Police also discovered that payments received via QR code scans were transferred to the account of Heng Pay Co and then to the gambling website’s mule accounts using AskMePay, which did not use banks’ face recognition scanning. An inquiry indicated a monthly turnover of approximately 5 billion baht.

According to investigators, the website has been up and running for around four years, with the payment mechanism in use for roughly eight months.

According to Pol Maj Gen Athip, Mr Narote owns the gaming website’s payment systems and is the director of Heng Pay Co. After gathering evidence, authorities requested arrest warrants for 14 people.

Thailand does not allow almost any kind of gaming. Even though the law doesn’t say anything specific about online gaming, it is still considered gambling. The country has pretty strict rules about gambling. Thai punters can bet on the national lottery and horse races, but they can’t bet on any other types of games.

But it’s not a secret that there is a huge illegal gaming business in Thailand, even though it’s illegal.

The illegal casinos, online betting shops, underground lotteries, and pop-up bookies that take bets on everything from cockfights to Muay Thai make a shadow economy that is worth billions of dollars every year.