According to a Reuters report, a Jamaican citizen living in New York was sentenced yesterday to two years in prison for his role in charging nearly US$20 million (J$1.72 billion) for bogus investment advice in what prosecutors described as a classic 'boiler room'fraud run out of a Staten Island strip mall.
Baldwin Anderson, 57, pleaded guilty in July to one count of securities fraud, just one day after he went to trial.
He was a former salesman at Gryphon Holdings, which operated as Gryphon Financial from 2005 until 2010.
Prosecutors said Gryphon sales staff pressured more than 5,000 individuals into purchasing increasingly expensive subscriptions to newsletters with names like "6 AM Money Machine" and "Wolves of Wall Street," as well as stock-recommendation software and stock tips generated by fabricated investment gurus.
Instead of Wall Street offices and high-profile investment geniuses, prosecutors said Gryphon was headquartered in a Staten Island strip mall and run by Kenneth Marsh, who went by a string of aliases including "Michael Warren" and "Ken Maseka" and claimed impressive, but fake, investment credentials.
The two-year sentence was handed down by US District Judge Jack Weinstein in Brooklyn Federal Court.
During a hearing on Tuesday, Anderson's attorney, Michael Padden of the federal public defender's office in New York, described his client as a "decent, hard-working" man who was "blinded by the success" of the Gryphon venture. To that end, Anderson believed the investment tips Gryphon sold were helping people, not hurting them, Padden said.
Assistant US Attorney Roger Burlingame rejected the argument that Anderson was so blinded by Marsh that he failed to grasp the reality of the operation. "This isn't being dazzled by anyone," Burlingame said Tuesday. "This is stealing."
THE STAR understands that Anderson could be deported after his sentence is served. He is also responsible for paying up to $3.2 million in restitution to Gryphon investors.
Further it is understood that a total of 18 defendants have been charged since Gryphon was shut down by federal officials in 2010. They are all being sentenced by Weinstein who has so far handed down sentences ranging from three to 25 months.
