By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK, Feb 28 (Reuters) - A North Carolina man was sentenced on Monday to eight years and one month in prison after pleading guilty to running what prosecutors called an $80 million Ponzi scheme involving automated teller machines.
Vance Moore, 57, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa in Manhattan, after pleading guilty in October to nine counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy, federal prosecutors said.
The government accused Moore and co-defendant Walter Netschi in September 2009 of soliciting investments to buy about 4,000 ATMs, promising the machines would generate fees from cash withdrawals.
In fact, about 3,600 of the ATMs did not exist or were never purchased and the men used proceeds to enrich themselves and further their scheme, prosecutors said.
Investigators said the fraud ran from 2005 to January 2008. FBI official Joseph Demarest at the time of the charges called the arrangement 'a classic Ponzi scheme.'
Moore's sentence also includes two years of supervised release. The defendant, a resident of Raleigh, previously agreed to forfeit $50 million, court records show.
'Mr. Moore looks forward to serving his time and returning to his family as quickly as possible,' his lawyer Seth Ginsberg said in an interview.
In November, a federal jury convicted Netschi, a Texas resident, of nine counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy.
Netschi is scheduled to be sentenced on April 22, prosecutors said.
The case is U.S. v. Moore et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 09-00881.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York) Keywords: PONZI/ATM SENTENCING (jon.stempel@thomsonreuters.com +1 646 223 6317; Reuters Messaging: jon.stempel.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
NEW YORK, Feb 28 (Reuters) - A North Carolina man was sentenced on Monday to eight years and one month in prison after pleading guilty to running what prosecutors called an $80 million Ponzi scheme involving automated teller machines.
Vance Moore, 57, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa in Manhattan, after pleading guilty in October to nine counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy, federal prosecutors said.
The government accused Moore and co-defendant Walter Netschi in September 2009 of soliciting investments to buy about 4,000 ATMs, promising the machines would generate fees from cash withdrawals.
In fact, about 3,600 of the ATMs did not exist or were never purchased and the men used proceeds to enrich themselves and further their scheme, prosecutors said.
Investigators said the fraud ran from 2005 to January 2008. FBI official Joseph Demarest at the time of the charges called the arrangement 'a classic Ponzi scheme.'
Moore's sentence also includes two years of supervised release. The defendant, a resident of Raleigh, previously agreed to forfeit $50 million, court records show.
'Mr. Moore looks forward to serving his time and returning to his family as quickly as possible,' his lawyer Seth Ginsberg said in an interview.
In November, a federal jury convicted Netschi, a Texas resident, of nine counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy.
Netschi is scheduled to be sentenced on April 22, prosecutors said.
The case is U.S. v. Moore et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 09-00881.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York) Keywords: PONZI/ATM SENTENCING (jon.stempel@thomsonreuters.com +1 646 223 6317; Reuters Messaging: jon.stempel.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.