Justice Served in Financial Fraud Case - Cobalt

[yellerpup]

I served on this federal jury for three weeks last November. Three greedy fellows, two of them recidivist fraudsters had absolutely NO defense (they had lawyers, they had excuses, but no defense) for the crime(s) they committed. Federal prosectors did a great job on this trial and we found all three guilty of five counts apiece on a variety of charges ranging from conspiracy to mail fraud. Two of these guys got out of prison, hooked up with a kindly-looking front man, and proceeded to bilk a number of investors out of over $23 million in under 14 months.

Details here:

http://newyork.realestaterama.com/2010/10/22/founder-of-the-cobalt-companies-sentenced-in-manhattan-federal-court-to-85-years-in-prison-for-23-million-real-estate-fraud-scheme-ID01210.html


This case was brought in coordination with President BARACK OBAMA’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, on which Mr. BHARARA serves as a Co-Chair of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Working Group. President OBAMA established the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated, and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch, and with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes.


Founder of the Cobalt Companies Sentenced in Manhattan Federal Court to 85 Years in Prison for $23 Million Real Estate Fraud Scheme
October 22, 2010

October 21, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) — PREET BHARARA the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that MARK ALAN SHAPIRO, the founder of the Cobalt Companies was sentenced today to 85 years in prison on charges stemming from a fraud that raised more than $23 million from over 250 investors in private placement real estate offerings. SHAPIRO was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by U.S. District Judge KIMBA M. WOOD, who presided over the three-week jury trial at which SHAPIRO, along with codefendants IRVING STITSKY and WILLIAM B. FOSTER, was found guilty.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney PREET BHARARA said: “Mark Shapiro is a career con-man who stole millions of dollars from hundreds of investors by selling worthless interests in a bogus investment offering. This Office will continue to work with our partners at the Federal Bureau of Investigation to ensure that sham investment opportunities like Cobalt do not corrupt the marketplace.”
According to the Superseding Indictment previously filed in Manhattan federal court, the evidence at trial, and statements made at the sentencing proceeding:
Beginning in late 2003, SHAPIRO, STITSKY, and FOSTER founded a group of companies that operated under the name “Cobalt,” which purportedly engaged in the acquisition and development of multi-family real estate properties throughout the United States. Through the Cobalt entities, SHAPIRO, STITSKY, and FOSTER fraudulently induced victims to invest by, among other things: (a) misrepresenting Cobalt’s operating history; (b) failing to inform prospective investors that Cobalt was owned and controlled by SHAPIRO and STITSKY, both convicted felons; and (c) misrepresenting and causing others to misrepresent Cobalt’s purported ownership interests in certain properties to prospective investors. In fact, Cobalt was a new company with little or no record of real estate investment success, was managed and controlled by SHAPIRO and STITSKY, and did not own several of the properties that it claimed to own.

[DCKit]

1. The Bankers and mortgage brokers/companies did much the same thing.

I guess the protection money they paid to Congress has, thus far, kept them out of court.

[yellerpup]

2. Jury trials would cure these thieves.

Take them (including their co-conspirators in Congress) to court and make them pay.