Financial Fraud: Troy Stratos Sentenced for Multiple Counts of Mail Fraud, Wire Fraud, And Money Laundering

<h2>Stratos Sentenced to over 21 Years in Prison<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p><strong>He Defrauded Victims of Over &dollar;30M Through Multiple Schemes and Obstructed Justice<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"mh-content-ad"><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js&quest;client&equals;ca-pub-9162800720558968"&NewLine; crossorigin&equals;"anonymous"><&sol;script>&NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle"&NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block&semi; text-align&colon;center&semi;"&NewLine; data-ad-layout&equals;"in-article"&NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"fluid"&NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-9162800720558968"&NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"1081854981"><&sol;ins>&NewLine;<script>&NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi;&NewLine;<&sol;script><&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>SACRAMENTO&comma; Calif&period; — Troy David Stratos&comma; 50&comma; formerly of Los Angeles&comma; was sentenced today by United States District Judge Troy L&period; Nunley to 21 years and 10 months in prison for multiple counts of mail fraud&comma; wire fraud&comma; money laundering and obstruction of justice&comma; United States Attorney Phillip A&period; Talbert announced&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>U&period;S&period; Attorney Talbert stated&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The fraudulent schemes devised and orchestrated by Stratos were staggering in their scope and audacity&period; Stratos crafted multiple layers of lies and worked to obstruct his victims’ and the authorities’ ability to discover the truth&period; He preyed upon his victims to satisfy his own voracious greed and desire for a lavish lifestyle&period; The sentence today reflects the seriousness of his crimes and the harm done to his victims&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Despite the complexity of his lies to conceal his schemes&comma; Troy Stratos is&comma; quite simply&comma; a common con artist&period; He exploited a life-long friendship to live luxuriously while draining the friend’s <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;tag&sol;financial-fraud&sol;amp&sol;" title&equals;"financial" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" data-wpil-monitor-id&equals;"674">financial<&sol;a> accounts&period; He also misrepresented himself to others to glean funds for stock shares that never existed to support his fraudulent lifestyle&comma;” said Special Agent in Charge Monica M&period; Miller of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Sacramento field office&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The FBI will identify and investigate individuals who perpetrate such large-scale fraud to ensure they face justice for their crimes&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to court documents and evidence presented during the course of the case&comma; between August 2005 and September 2007&comma; Stratos devised and executed a scheme to defraud his targeted victim of money and property&period; He told her that he was wealthy and successful&comma; and that&comma; among other things&comma; he had made substantial money from oil investments&period; Stratos promised that he would help manage the victim’s portion of the proceeds from her recent divorce&comma; including real property in her name and cash assets&period; Stratos told her that she needed to create a trust allowing Stratos to have access and control over her assets and the trust&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Stratos falsely represented that he would invest the divorce proceeds overseas&comma; including in Dubai and in the United Arab Emirates&comma; where the proceeds would earn a high rate of return&period; Stratos also falsely represented that he would pay for her expenses from his own money because her money was purportedly invested overseas&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Stratos never invested any money overseas as he promised&period; Instead&comma; he diverted substantial sums of money from the trust for his own personal use&period; He also used portions of the money to pay the victim&equals;s expenses&comma; misrepresenting to her that he was spending his own money to pay those expenses&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Further&comma; between February 2007 and April 2007&comma; Stratos was informed of a grand jury subpoena that his bookkeeper had received requiring the production of various financial records relating to Stratos&comma; including documents relating to Stratos’ spending the victim’s money in casinos in Las Vegas&period; Stratos instructed the bookkeeper to not provide some of the records&period; In April 2010&comma; the FBI executed a search warrant for a storage locker maintained by Stratos and located the records covered by the grand jury subpoena that were withheld at the direction of Stratos&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Thereafter&comma; beginning in December 2010 and continuing through February 2012&comma; Stratos engaged in a new scheme to defraud Tim Burns&comma; a financial manager in Pennsylvania&comma; of approximately &dollar;11&comma;250&comma;000 of investors’ money&period; Burns was in the market to buy Facebook stock&comma; pre-IPO &lpar;initial public offering&rpar;&comma; for some of his clients in 2011&period; Stratos&comma; who used the alias &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Ken Dennis&comma;” because his own name had numerous negative postings on the internet&comma; told Burns that he represented Carlos Slim&comma; one of the wealthiest individuals in the world&period; Stratos claimed that Carlos Slim was in the process of purchasing a large block of Facebook shares&comma; and Stratos offered to sell to Burns favorably priced Facebook shares that were in excess of what Carlos Slim was purchasing&period; Stratos also claimed to be connected with insiders at Facebook&comma; including Mark Zuckerberg&comma; and Facebook’s CFO&period; Stratos promised increasingly larger amounts of Facebook stock starting at approximately two million shares and up to 40 million shares&period; Based on the representations by Stratos&comma; Burns sent three wire transfers totaling &dollar;11&comma;250&comma;000 to purchase the Facebook stock&period; The first wire transfer was sent to the client-trust account at Venable LLP&comma; which was the law firm that Stratos had retained&period; The subsequent wire transfers were sent to bank accounts that Stratos controlled&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Throughout the scheme&comma; Stratos assured Burns that the deal would close at any moment&comma; often promising that the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;papers” were about to be signed&period; Alternatively&comma; Stratos offered to refund to Burns his deposit&comma; even within a few days&comma; but warned Burns that he would regret missing the opportunity to make money&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On December 20&comma; 2011&comma; the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Stratos in Los Angeles for the earlier fraud scheme&period; Stratos&comma; through text messages and a telephone call&comma; continued to tell Burns that the deal was real and that he could refund Burns’ money&period; By this time&comma; Stratos had spent nearly all of the &dollar;11&period;25 million&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>At sentencing&comma; the court found that Stratos also engaged in other fraudulent conduct&period; The United States has estimated that Stratos obtained in excess of &dollar;43 million in fraudulent proceeds between in 1996 and his arrest in 2011&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A hearing was held to determine restitution&period; The court took it under submission and will issue a written order&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This case was the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation&period; Assistant United States Attorneys Todd Pickles and Jared Dolan prosecuted the case&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Stratos has remained in custody since his in arrest in 2011&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;usao-edca&sol;pr&sol;stratos-sentenced-over-21-years-prison">Original PressReleases&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;

Financial Fraud