Alberto Vilar and Gary Tanaka, co-founders of Amerindo Investment Advisors Inc., stole $20 million from clients, even cutting and pasting one investor's signature to transfer money from her account, prosecutors said.
Vilar and Tanaka, "drowning in a sea of debt" after their investments in computer and Internet companies plummeted in value beginning in 2000, stole from clients to keep Amerindo afloat and to cover Vilar's personal expenses, Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Litt told jurors Nov. 12 in closing arguments in the federal fraud and conspiracy trial in Manhattan.
Prosecutors claim Vilar and Tanaka's victims included Lily Cates, the mother of actress Phoebe Cates. When a bank threatened to auction Vilar's luxury Manhattan co-op in 2003 because of missed mortgage payments, the men used Cates's cut- and-taped signature to steal $250,000 from her brokerage account at Bear Stearns, Litt said.
"That's about as fraudulent as it gets -- cutting and taping a client's signature on a document," Litt argued to the 12 jurors and three alternates.
Vilar, 67, and Tanaka, 65, are charged with 12 counts of conspiracy, securities fraud, investment-adviser fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and lying to the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission. They face as long as 20 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charges.
No comments:
Post a Comment