Local man indicted, accused of luring investors to phony anti-terror firm
9:25 PM PDT Thursday
A federal grand jury has indicted a Sacramento man accused of bilking at least 112 investors out of more than $1.3 million for a phony face identification device billed as a way to protect against terrorist attacks like those of September 11, 2001.
Ross Allen Rojek, 37, was charged with eight counts of mail fraud, two counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering as part of an investigation by Sacramento Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the California Department of Corporations. If convicted, he could be sentenced to as much as 20 years in prison and fined up to $250,000 for each fraud count, and up to 10 years for each money-laundering count, along with a fine of up to twice the amount he may be found to have wrongfully obtained.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys James Arguelles and Robert Tice-Raskin said in a prepared statement that Rojek, starting in March 2002, Rojek created and took part in a scheme to lure investors to back the bogus face-recognition system.
To that end, the attorneys said, Rojek used aliases and the company names Face Information Technology LLC and Sentry Biometrics to send out a false prospectus that claimed the system had the backing of a management team of three former high-level employees with Netscape Communications.
The "team" was fictitious, as was the claim that the company had developed and prepared "patents which would 'solve America's security crisis' brought about by the events of September 11," the prosecutors said. Rojek allegedly provided addresses and phone numbers to investors for offices and other work sites in Sacramento that were really mail drops and answering services.
When investors raised questions, the attorneys said, Rojek took additional steps to allay their concerns and extend the scheme, which ultimately bilked at least 112 investors around the United States.
sacramento.bizjournals.com
steve |
