Canadian man pleads guilty to fraud and money laundering charges
DON THOMPSON
Associated Press
Posted on Tue, May. 06, 2003
SACRAMENTO - A Canadian citizen has pleaded guilty to federal money laundering and fraud charges in Sacramento for running an Internet investment fraud scheme that netted more than $60 million from more than 15,000 victims.
Alyn Richard Waage, 56, of Nisku, a town in the Canadian province of Alberta, was extradited from Costa Rica in December to face charges related to the Tri-West Investment Club.
Prosecutors allege Tri-West bilked investors by using new investor funds to make "dividend" payments to earlier investors who purchased "prime bank notes" that didn't exist.
Waage pleaded guilty Monday to mail and wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering charges, and faces a July 14 sentencing.
He's cooperating with prosecutors and promising to make restitution to the scam's victims.
Waage also promised in a 51-page plea agreement not to fight the government's seizure of millions of dollars worth of property in Costa Rico and Mexico, a yacht, a helicopter, motorcycles and more than a dozen cars. Federal authorities are also seeking millions of dollars in dozens of bank accounts in Latvia, Mexico and Costa Rico, and about $243,000 in cash seized in Costa Rico in Sept. 2001.
Those assets were controlled by Waage through 33 companies, the plea agreement said.
In return, prosecutors agreed to recommend his sentence be at the low end of federal sentencing guidelines for his crimes, and to potentially seek an even shorter sentence if Waage fully cooperates.
With his full cooperation, they also agreed to consider recommending a reduction in the sentence of Waage's son, Cary Alyn Waage, 26, who pleaded guilty to related mail fraud and money laundering charges in April 2001, and to drop charges against Michelle Higgins, Alyn Waage's wife.
Lynn Waage Johnston, Alyn Waage's sister, remains a fugitive, while charges are pending against James Michael Webb, of Mountain View, Calif., who is in custody. |
