$11.25 Million Investor Fraud Scheme U.S. Attorney’s Office May 23, 2013 Eastern District of California (916) 554-2700 SACRAMENTO, CA—A federal grand jury returned a 20-count superseding indictment today charging Troy Stratos, 47, formerly of Los Angeles, with three counts of mail fraud, 12 counts of wire fraud, four counts of money laundering, and one count of obstruction of justice, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced. In December 2011, Stratos was indicted for mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice in relation to a scheme to defraud a woman of more than $7 million. The superseding indictment includes all the charges in the original indictment and adds four counts of wire fraud and two counts of money laundering relating to a different scheme to defraud a financial manager of $11.25 million in client funds. The first indictment alleged that Stratos defrauded a woman of at least $7 million by convincing her that he would manage the proceeds of her divorce by investing them overseas where they would earn a high rate of return. Stratos represented to the woman that he was himself wealthy and successful and was involved in the entertainment industry. At Stratos’ request and instruction, the woman executed a revocable trust with Stratos into which she placed the cash proceeds of her divorce and property. Stratos never invested any money as promised but diverted substantial sums of money from the trust for his own personal use. He also used portions of the money to pay the woman’s expenses, misrepresenting to her that he was spending his own money to pay for her expenses while her assets were invested overseas. Stratos claimed that he could sell her Granite Bay house to Middle Eastern royal families but needed to lease luxury automobiles to make the property more enticing. In fact, Stratos lived in the house and made use of the automobiles. The charge of obstruction of justice alleges that in February 2007, when Stratos’ bookkeeper was served with a grand jury subpoena, Stratos instructed him to not produce some of the documents covered by the subpoena. The superseding indictment newly
Posted on: Wed, 05 Jun 2013 14:54:23 +0000
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