14 DAY TRIAL // Sandy Winick, said to be a penny stock fraud kingpin, and Gregory Curry have been arrested in Thailand. The two are believed to be behind one of the largest international penny stock frauds and advance fee schemes in history.
Winick and his co-defendant have been arrested in Bangkok by Thai authorities working with the FBI and the US Embassy in Bangkok based on provisional arrest warrants.
The two will likely be extradited to the US where Winick faces charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, securities fraud and false personation of an officer of the United States.
Curry has been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and false personation of an officer of the United States.
According to authorities, Winick ran two separate but interrelated schemes. He and Curry are accused of fraudulently pumping up the share price of worthless penny stocks and then tricking unsuspecting investors from all over the world into buying billions of shares.
In the second scheme, the two operated so-called boiler rooms and they induced investors in penny stocks to pay advance fees, which supposedly helped victim-investors to sell their stocks and recover the losses they incurred.
It’s believed the two tricked people from 35 countries, making over $140 million (€104 million) through brokerage and bank accounts they controlled.
“As alleged in the indictment, the defendants Sandy Winick and Gregory Curry used our securities markets as a platform from which to run elaborate fraudulent schemes to victimize tens of thousands of unsuspecting investors across the globe,” stated Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
“They swindled investors into buying billions of shares of worthless stock, then turned around and used a second scam to pick their pockets yet again. They thought that they could simply run away from their crimes. Today, with the help of our friends in Thai law enforcement, we once again showed that fraudsters cannot hide from the law.”
They’re not the first ones to be arrested in this case. Earlier this month, a total of other seven individuals were arrested for their alleged involvement in the same fraud conspiracy.