nipc.gov
For Immediate Release
Date: April 2, 1997
Contact: Joseph Valiquette (212) 384-2715
James Margolin (212) 384-2720
FBI - NEW YORK OFFICE - PRESS RELEASE
New York Field Office
JAMES K. KALLSTROM, Assistant Director in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New York, and ZACHARY W. CARTER, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, today announced the indictment of a ring largely comprised of Russian emgres on charges of operating a massive securities fraud scheme, and soliciting a murder to protect the ongoing criminal enterprise from other criminal predators. The defendants are charged with using high-pressure sales tactics and gross misrepresentations about a company called Globus Group, Inc., resulting in the fraudulent inflation of Globus's price from 25 cents per share in January 1996 to $8 per share in September 1996. By October 1996, shortly after the defendants ceased pitching the stock, the price had dropped to less than forty cents per share. The collapse of the Globus market resulted in the loss of several million dollars to unsuspecting members of the investing public.
While Globus was promoted as being in the business of providing Internet service linking importers to exporters, it was actually a shell company which provided no such service. Rather, Globus maintained small offices at 111 Broadway and 1841 Broadway in Manhattan and had virtually no assets.
According to the indictment, which charges eighteen defendants with participating in the scheme, the officers and directors of Globus, including defendants BORIS SHINDMAN, also known as "Borya", ALEXANDER FLYKSHTEYN, also known as "Pirat" (Russian for "the pirate"), MANUEL PONTONES and CHRISTOPER BAILEY, secretly held offshore bank accounts in the Bahamas and the West Indies. The accounts were in the names of various fictitious corporate entities, such as "Virgo Bay, Ltd." and "Leeward Cove Holdings, Ltd". By transferring Globus stock to these corporate shells, the defendants were able to sell the stock to the public as the value of Globus stock rose. Federal securities laws and regulations prohibited the direct sale of the stock to the public by Globus insiders. After the cash resulting from these sales had been deposited in the offshore accounts, the defendants then funneled the money back to themselves.
The indictment charges that in addition to enriching themselves from the scheme, the defendants used their illicit profits to pay crews of unlicensed brokers to pitch the stock by placing cold calls to members of the public. The calls were placed from a brokerage firm called Hillcrest Financial Corporation at 80 Broad Street in Manhattan and three boiler rooms located in Manhattan and Staten Island.
The indictment charges the defendants ALEXANDER SHINDMAN, also known as "Shneid", "Fat Man" and "Fats", RODNEY KADYMIR also known as "Rodick", IGOR STOLYAR, also known as "Eric" and "Gosha", PATRICK GIORDANO, ZORLAN ERIK BALONK also known as "Z", CHRISTOPHER JOHN CIPRIANO, also known as "Bulldog", PAVEL GORESHATSKY, also known as "Paul Gorr", ALEX RUBINSHTEYN, also known as "Rubai", YEVGENY SIVARTSSHTEYN, also known as "Marc Vinson" and "Geno", and GARY CUCUZZA with pitching the stock and supervise other cold-callers who worked out of the four locations. According to the indictment, ALEXANDER SHINDMAN was at the center of the scheme, both directing the cold-callers and instruing the principals of Globus as to how much Globus stock to cash out.
Reading from pitch sheets, the cold-callers relied on high-pressure sales tactics and outright lies to induce the public to invest in the stock. For example, the cold-callers falsely claimed that Globus had won a 12 million-dollar antitrust suit against AT&T, when in fact no such lawsuit existed. Globus also misled the pubhc by issuing false press releases. One such release claimed that Globus had signed an agreement to acquire a company called Kingston Operating Corp. in a transaction valued at $3.9 million. In fact, there was no such agreement.
The indictment also charges two of the defendants, IGOR STOLYAR and his father ALIK STOLYAR, also known as "Alex", with using a telephone to solicit a murder. This charge arose from the STOLYARS' recruitment of a hitman in Canada to kill certain individuals who were shaking down IGOR STOLYAR and some of his cold-callers for thousands of dollars a month. The murders did not take place.
In commenting on today's indictment, MR. CARTER commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation and thanked the Securities & Exchange Commission and the National Association of Securities Dealers for their assistance in the investigation. MR. CARTER stated:"In the past few years, stock fraud schemes of the sort charged in this indictment have become a new form of organized crime. This Office is committed to rooting out these crimes and the sophisticated criminals who perpetrate them. We will continue to apply the full extent of law enforcement's resources to assure the public that it may continue to have confidence in the integrity of all securities markets."
MR. KALLSTROM stated: "Investors recognize that there are inherent risks in the securities markets. The victims of this scheme didn't merely risk losing their investment; the defendants guaranteed they would lose it. The message to market manipulators is that conduct like that alleged in the indictment carries its own inherent risks; arrest and prosecution to the fullest extent of the law."
According to MR. CARTER, today's charges are the result of an eleven-month investigation by the FBI, with assistance from the SEC and the NASD. The twenty-two count indictment charges several crimes, including mail and wire fraud, securities fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and use of a communication facility to commit murder-for-hire. The defendants face a five-year maximum for each of the mail, wire and securities fraud counts and twenty years for the money laundering charge. The murder-for-hire charge carries a maximum term of 10 years imprisonment.
The case has been assigned to Chief Judge Charles P. Sifton, United States District Court, Eastern District of New York. Those defendants arrested in New York will be arraigned later today by Magistrate Judge John L. Caden at the United States Courthouse in Brooklyn.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attomeys Jason Brown, Jonathan Sack and Bridget Rohde.
DEFENDANTS
NAME: ALEXANDER SHINDMAN
ADDRESS: 407 N.E. Misner Blvd., Apt. 706
Boca Raton, FL
DOB: 9/6/66
NAME: BORIS DAVID SHINDMAN
ADDRESS: 445 Neptune Avenue, Apt. F22
Brooklyn, NY
DOB: 01/13/62
NAME: MANUEL JUAN PONTONES
ADDRESS:
DOB: 07/25/62
NAME: IGOR ERIC STOLYAR
ADDRESS: 1311 Brightwater Ave., Apt. 10B
Brooklyn, NY
DOB: 06/18/69
NAME: ALIK STOLYAR
ADDRESS: 1213 Avenue Z, Apt F34
Brooklyn, NY
DOB. 05/30/48
NAME: CHRISTOPHER BAILEY
ADDRESS: 840 S. American St., Apt. A
Philadelphia, PA
DOB: 10/4/71
NAME: ERIK L. BAILEY
ADDRESS: 10686 NW Highway 326
Ocala, FL
DOB: 11/18/60
NAME: ZORIAN ERIC BALONIK
ADDRESS: 2940 W. 5th Street
Brooklyn, NY
DOB: 08/10/65
NAME: PATRICK GIORDANO
ADDRESS: 1521 66th Street, 2nd Fl(Front)
Brooklyn, NY
DOB: 09/05/58
NAME: ALEX RUBINSHTEYN
ADDRESS: 30 Newport Parkway, Apt. 1005
Jersey City, NJ
DOB: 05/03/69
NAME: CHRITOPHER JOHN CIPRIANO
ADDRESS: 196 Bay 10th Street(Top Unit)
Brooklyn, NY
DOB: 01/15/70
NAME: GARY ANTHONY CUCUZZA
ADDRESS: 7208 Avenue V
Brooklyn, NY
DOB: 05/21/63
NAME: ALEXANDER FLIKSHTEYN
ADDRESS:
DOB: 12/31/70
NAME: PAVEL GORESHATSKY
ADDRESS: 2549 E. 6th Street
Brooklyn, NY
DOB: 06/10/74
NAME: RODNEY KADYMIR
ADDRESS: 50 Brighton 1st Road, Apt. 11F
Brooklyn, NY
DOB: 10/10/65
NAME: YEVGENY SHVARTSSHTEYN
ADDRESS: 14 Cass Place, Apt. 4C
Brooklyn NY
DOB: 04/05/70
NAME: EDWARD VERTSMAN
ADDRESS: 749 E. Park Avenue
Long Beach, NY
DOB: 03/14/72
NAME: RITA ZAKHARCHENKO
ADDRESS: 2775 E. 12th St., Apt. 508
Brooklyn, NY
DOB: 07/26/55
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