Here is story that talks about their past endevors:Securities schemers seek solace in Boca
Published Saturday, January 10, 2004
by Dale M. King
Boca Raton is a Mecca for both the upwardly mobile, the idly rich and retirees looking to gear down from life’s fury.
It’s an interesting mélange – one that doesn’t always lend itself to a symbiotic relationship.
Boca – the city considered by many to be a gem along the Gold Coast – is also home to many white-collar scoundrels and scam artists whose prey often includes senior citizens whose naiveté and trust can become their unfortunate undoing.
When not scamming and scheming, these white-collar weasels scurry away to multi-million dollar homes in guarded and gated complexes where visitors are anathema and secrecy is the order of the day.
Consider Woodfield Country Club, the cream of Boca’s high-end communities. Among those who sip pina coladas at the poolside and jog the tree-lined streets in Spandex pants is Kenneth Tripoli.
Well, Tripoli isn’t sipping and jogging these days. He’s doing time in the pen for participating in alleged money laundering, conspiracy, mail fraud and wire fraud. He is scheduled for release this year.
Tripoli’s family is awaiting his return at their Woodfield home.
Nearly four years ago, Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau held a news conference announcing that 22 people had pleaded guilty, and another 20 were indicted, in connection with “activities stemming from their varying roles” in the activities of Meyers Pollack Robbins Inc., a securities firm charged with enterprise corruption.
The indictment accuses seven people with acting as “owners and operators of Meyers Pollack offices.”
But Tripoli, Morgenthau said, used another person’s name and license to run his own MPR Inc. franchise.
DA outlines scheme
The Manhattan DA said all eight “taught their brokers how to sell securities by fraud,” selected specific securities to sell for themselves and falsified records of their transactions.
Boca Raton may not have a lock on securities cheaters and schemers, but it has an ignominious reputation for drawing telemarketing scammers and securities rule-breakers into its midst.
In vast numbers, say government regulators.
Consider the case of Daniel Porush, one-time president of Stratton Oakmont Inc. Working for him were nearly 200 stockbrokers and salesmen who specialized in luring unwary investors into risky ventures with promises of fast bucks.
When the house of cards fell apart, Porush sought refuge where many other scandalized millionaires looked to breathe free – Boca Raton.
According to real estate records, Porush bought a Palm Beach condominium in 1995, then moved to Woodfield Country Club in Boca in 1998.
By the way, when he was kicked out of the securities biz, he was fined $250,000, lost his securities license in seven states, pleaded guilty to securities fraud in New York and was ordered by arbitrators to pay $23 million to customers.
Lots of people have given up the cold-calling life for the warmth of sunny Florida, basking behind the hallowed walls and secretive gates of Boca neighborhood developments.
Joseph Tuozzo, a former broker at Harriman Group Inc. – or HGI – of Jericho, N.Y., owned 2 percent of the company. He moved to Boca Raton in August 1998, buying a $460,000 house with his wife in Woodfield Country Club.
There’s also the case of Brian Scanlon, a stockbroker at Stratton Oakmont from 1990 to 1992 and former president of HGI.
When the firm went belly-up, its ex-leader found solace in a $1.69 million home in Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club in Boca Raton. He put the house in his wife’s name.
The couple, however, has since moved back to New York.
Many ne’er-do-wells put the wife’s name on the property – just in case the bank comes calling. But in Florida, with its heavy emphasis on property rights, even those who take the bankruptcy route aren’t likely to lose their homes.
But you never know.
Bounced from the biz
Also no stranger to Boca Raton is Jordan Shamah, former managing director and partner in Stratton Oakmont. He bought a home in Balboa Point, Boca Raton, then sold it a year later. He was bounced from the securities biz and then indicted with three others
on charges of securities fraud over the Internet.
Stratton Oakmont also disgorged Scott Forman, who went on to work for Biltmore Securities in New York. He’s in a Boca home that he bought for just under a half-million dollars.
He was suspended from the securities industry in 1998 for failing to pay back a former client.
Stuart Litman, former president of Maidstone Financial Inc. of New York – a spin-off of Stratton Oakmont – moved to a home owned by his wife on Sanctuary Drive in Boca Raton in 1997. He moved back to New York a year later.
Barely two years ago, five men – two from Boca – were indicted on charges of securities fraud, according to Alan Vinegrad, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Kevin Donovan of the FBI.
Among those charged were David Davidson of 5015 Blue Heron Way, Boca Raton and Lloyd S.M. Bierne of 18690 Long Lake Drive, Boca Raton.
Charges arose out of “schemes to manipulate the prices of securities of two small-cap companies, Big City Bagels Inc. and Pallet Management Systems Inc.,” the law enforcement officials said.
So while big-city and big-dollar schemers continue to seek out Boca Raton as a safe haven, authorities try to crack their stranglehold on the illicit market.
Said Vinegrad: “This case reflects the government’s continuing commitment to investigating and prosecuting stock brokers who abuse the trust of investors, and to foster the confidence of the public in the operation of the securities market.”
Send this page to a friend |
