My freind Bill,
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Slain Promoters Assisted With Fraud Investigations
The two on-line stock promoters found shot to death on Tuesday in
a mansion in Colts Neck, N.J., had been informers in investigations
of securities fraud, regulatory and law enforcement officials said Thursday.
But investigators said they were uncertain whether the information the
men provided was sufficiently damaging to provoke such an attack.
Federal and state law enforcement officials are exploring a variety of
possible motives for the killings as they try to unravel the tangled
business relationships and questionable ventures of the two men.
One victim, Maier Lehmann, 37, pleaded guilty in 1995 to mail fraud
in connection with an insurance scheme on Long Island, according to
computerized court records. This year, he also settled a regulatory
complaint arising from a stock manipulation scheme and paid $630,000 in
fines and restitution to investors.
The other victim, Albert Alain Chalem, 41, had worked at a number of
businesses, now defunct, that specialized in the low-price, high-risk
securities known as penny stocks. At least two of those businesses are
under criminal investigation. Chalem was well known in the murky and
increasingly violent world of these tiny stocks, friends and business
associates said... |
