Indictments Accuse 10 Of Running Credit-card Scam
Ten people have been indicted on charges they ran a $1.2 million nationwide credit-card scam from boiler rooms in Jupiter, West Palm Beach and Huntsville, Ala., federal officials said.
As of Thursday, at least one man had been arrested in Huntsville, said David H. Noznesky, resident agent in West Palm Beach for the U.S. Secret Service.
Here's how the alleged scam worked: Telemarketers, working by phone from offices known as boiler rooms, led consumers to believe they were getting a Visa or Mastercard with an 11.88 percent interest rate. But after customers paid a fee-- up to $100 by credit card-- they were sent worthless financial pamphlets and a list of banks instead.
Investigators estimated the group took in more than $1.2 million over a 10-month period.
"I think there's a great lesson to be learned for the public," said Noznesky, whose office is an agency of the U.S Treasury that investigates, among other things, counterfeiting. "Don't give your credit card number, your checking account number or other personal information by phone unless you have thorougly checked out who you're dealing with."
Indicted were Daniel Morris Klibanoff, John Edwin Nichols, Donovan Lehman, Richard Williams, Jaimin Shah, Dorian Reed, Jared Mastroianni, Joseph Mastroianni, Michaelene Kaplan and Mike Sympsomos.
They face 146 counts including wire fraud and counterfeit use of the Visa and Mastercard symbols between April, 1990 and Jan. 17, 1991. If convicted, they face maximum sentences of five to 10 years per count, officials said.
Klibanoff is the only person known to have been arrested so far. A bond hearing is scheduled for today.
Attempts to reach people named in the indictment were not successful.
Klibanoff was president of a Huntsville-based company called Listworld, which was raided by Federal Trade Commission officials last year. The FTC filed a complaint charging fraud and deception. Charges were dropped after Klibanoff signed a consent decree banning him from the telemarketing business, The Huntsville Times reported.
Joseph Mastroianni was registered agent for four Jupiter companies incorporated in 1990 and dissolved last October, state records show. They are Fortune 900 Inc., Better Financial Credit Corp., Financial World Services Inc. and Intercredit Financial Corp.
Sypsomos was listed as a director of Fortune 900 Inc. Records show Kaplan and Jared Mastroianni are principals of M. Kaplan & Associates in Jupiter. The company, incorporated in October 1990, has no telephone listing.
Copyright ¸ Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc., 1992
Charles Elmore, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer, Indictments Accuse 10 Of Running Credit-card Scam., 06-19-1992. |
