Consensus is... he's a con man.
And there are still a few falling for it
Posted on Mon, Jul. 01, 2002
Former Texas financier may have Sept. 11 tie
By MARIA RECIO
Knight Ridder Newspapers
NEW YORK - Two years after pleading guilty to mail fraud and promising a Fort Worth federal judge that he was a changed man, financier Amr Elgindy is in trouble again.
This time, the stakes are much higher.
Federal prosecutors in New York who secured an indictment in May against the former Colleyville, Texas, resident on charges of masterminding a stock fraud scheme have alleged that Elgindy might have known beforehand about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and tried to profit from a stock dump the day before.
They persuaded a federal judge Thursday to keep Elgindy in a jail in Brooklyn because they consider him a flight risk, despite his attorney's arguments that he is a family man with strong ties to the United States who came to this country when he was 3.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Breen declined to comment Thursday about the possibility of Sept. 11 links in the case.
But in May, Breen told a federal judge in San Diego, where Elgindy lives, that the financier attempted to liquidate his children's trust with holdings of $300,000 on Sept. 10 and that he predicted to his broker that the market would plunge 3,000 points the next day.
"Perhaps Mr. Elgindy had pre-knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks and, rather than report it, he was attempting to profit from that information," Breen said. He told the California court that the investigation into the possibility of links between Elgindy and Sept. 11 continues, and that the prospect of even more serious charges gives Elgindy a motive to flee the country.
In New York last week, U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie expressed concern about the possibility of Sept. 11 links and said he would consider releasing Elgindy only after he had a more complete financial picture of the financier, who owns a house valued at $2.2 million in San Diego. Dearie insisted that the government secure more than $600,000 that Elgindy had transferred to Lebanon this year.
Elgindy, 34, also known as "Tony" or "Tony Pacific," was transferred by authorities from San Diego to New York in mid-June. The six-count indictment returned in May charges him and four other people with conspiracy, extortion, insider trading and obstruction of justice. If convicted, prosecutors estimate, Elgindy could face more than 24 years in prison.
Elgindy, a specialist in short-selling stock, says he is innocent of those charges, which accuse him of obtaining inside information from FBI agents about companies under investigation.
The government says that in disclosing the investigations in investment chat rooms and elsewhere on the Internet, Elgindy positioned himself and others to use the damaging information to drive down the stock price and reap a profit.
Short sellers "borrow" stock from a broker and sell it, agreeing to return the stock later. They bet that the stock's price will fall, enabling them to profit.
The prosecutors' allegations last week were the latest twist in the tale of Elgindy, who lived in a large house in Tarrant County, Texas, with his wife and children from 1992 to 1998. During that time, he acquired a national reputation as a stock guru and drew the attention of federal investigators.
Indicted on nine counts of fraud in Fort Worth in 1999, Elgindy cut a deal with federal prosecutors on one count. He was ordered to pay $20,000 and to serve four months in prison and three years' probation. He was allowed to serve his time in California so he could be near his family, which had moved to San Diego.
His former neighbors in Colleyville remember him as the intense man with the roaring red Ferrari. The Northern District of Texas' Assistant U.S. Attorney David Jarvis calls him a "con man."
"The guy is pretty brazen," Jarvis said, describing Elgindy's plea to a charge of fraudulently collecting over $50,000 in disability insurance while working for two brokerages in North Texas. "This guy is a huckster."
The veteran Texas prosecutor expressed displeasure that in recent media interviews, Elgindy has accused Jarvis of being out to get him. "I don't have anything personal against him," Jarvis said. "I'm just doing my job."
But Jarvis, who is not connected to the May indictment, said he is pleased that Elgindy had to plead guilty to one of the counts brought in Texas. "The conviction in Fort Worth was so important because he has a felony conviction attached to his name," Jarvis said.
Elgindy is still on probation for the mail fraud conviction, and federal prosecutors in New York are saying that he has violated probation several times.
Elgindy has not spoken in his recent court appearances, but at a sentencing hearing in Fort Worth on May 15, 2000, he said he had changed.
Appearing before U.S. District Judge Terry Means, Elgindy said he had changed from someone "taking from the public as a broker" to "somebody who was looking out for the public." He lost his brokerage license in 1998 but said he helped numerous federal investigations into mob influence in the financial markets.
"So if I were to stand over myself five years ago," he said, referring to the period of the fraud, "I know for a fact that I would not have liked myself nor would I have tolerated the activity or any of the behavior in which I was involved in.
"I find it intolerable, and it is against all the standards and values that I have currently today," he said.
Elgindy, known for hiring high-priced legal talent, was represented in the Texas case by Fort Worth lawyer Jeff Kearney and high-profile Dallas lawyer Billy Ravkind.
Supporters at the sentencing hearing emotionally testified that Elgindy was a generous man who had selflessly taken up the causes of Kosovo refugees and the ministry of Mother Teresa.
"He helped us, my family and people in my country," said Valentina Hoti, who Elgindy arranged to move to California. "He's a very special person, very big in heart."
Some Colleyville neighbors remember Elgindy less kindly.
"He would go with his Testarossa at 70 miles an hour and drive through every stop sign," said one former neighbor who asked not to be identified out of fear of Elgindy. "He was very intimidating. There was always something going on at that house."
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(c) 2002, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
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