8 Accused in Scheme
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Eight people, including a Santa Ana resident, face federal charges in a scheme that promised investors a $73.3-million return on a $40,000 investment.
A 14-count indictment unsealed Wednesday in Huntington, W.Va., accuses members of wire fraud, money laundering and selling securities without a proper license.
Those indicted were Stephen Oles, a San Diego businessman; Ramona Holcombe of Santa Ana; Stanie E. Benz of Ojai; James Gormley, an attorney from Atlanta; David and Jennifer Raimer of the Orlando, Fla. area; Gary D. Bolin of Flat Rock, Ill.; and Ernst N. Tietjen of Salt Lake City.
Prosecutors linked the scheme to Roger Damron of Huntington. Damron was sentenced last year to seven years in prison for building a related pyramid scheme.
The indictment says the ring peddled a number of “offshore trading programs,” hawking them as “an exclusive, almost secret type of investment, available only to a wealthy few . . . akin to creating money nearly out of thin air.”
Prosecutors say the $7.9 million collected from investors was moved around in bank accounts across the United States, England and in the Turk and Caicos islands.
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