At least someone went to jail.
Friday October 23, 7:07 am Eastern Time
Convicted stock defrauder gets 65 months in prison
WASHINGTON, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Robert Orkin, a former owner and manager of Florida brokerage firm R.B.
Webster Investments Inc, was sentenced to 65 months in prison for securities fraud, money laundering and wire
fraud, the Justice Department said.
Orkin took bribes from Las Vegas-based long distance provider Teletek Inc (TLTK - news) to encourage the
firm's brokers to sell more than $3 million of Teletek stock to about 1,000 investors, the department said on
Wednesday in a news release.
Orkin and a co-defendant were convicted following a grand jury trial in May 1998.
The investors were defrauded because they failed to receive unbiased advice regarding the best and most
suitable investments for them, and were not told, by either Teletek or Orkin, that the advice they received was
''corrupted by bribes,'' the statement said.
The fraudulent activity allegedly occurred from November 1991 until about December 1995, and allegedly
included the bribing of stockbrokers in at least ten states, Justice said.
R.B. Webster's customers lost nearly all of their Teletek investments. The firm and Orkin were expelled from
the securities industry in October 1993 for fraudulent and excessive markups on securities not related to
Teletek.
At the sentencing, U.S. District Court Judge Lloyd George also ordered Orkin to forfeit $326,013.28 in illegal
proceeds, pay a $25,000 fine plus an additional $500,000 in restitution to the investors.
One of the investors testified that he lost $140,000 which he was going to use to buy a boys' baseball camp, the
statement said. |
