Original article ~ Beware when someone says "Trust Me" ~ Radio host arrested in July ~ Charges included: Wire Fraud, Mail Fraud, Money Laundering. "He called his listeners "truth seekers" and drew them in, rich and poor alike, with promises of financial security, just as the bottom began to drop out" ...Read full article ~ Busted ~ Radio Host Carried by Worldwide Christian Radio network gets charged in Foreign Currency Ponzi scheme
and more arrests .. Three more defendants indicted in Trevor Cook’s Foreign Currency Forex Ponzi scheme
November 16, 2011
Lies about Ponzi loot bring 10 months in prison
A Minnesota National Guardsman who was caught last year stashing gold, silver and platinum coins, Iraqi dinars and other loot from his friend Trevor Cook's Ponzi scheme in a locker at the Mall of America was sentenced Tuesday to 10 months in prison for lying to federal agents about the source of the booty.
What typically would have been a routine, 30-minute hearing stretched to 90 minutes as Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Perzel tried to put on evidence showing that Jon Greco deserved at least a year in prison, while the defense attorney struggled to rein her in.
Continues ...read more ..
Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis grew impatient as Perzel questioned IRS agent John Tschida about the lies Greco initially told federal agents.
Tschida said having to deal with Greco temporarily distracted agents from investigating several alleged co-conspirators in the case.
Perzel walked Tschida through a timeline of Greco's involvement in the case and was showing a videotape of his interview with federal agents when Davis called a halt.
"Greco pleaded guilty. Other than trying to make a show of this, it's just not necessary," Davis said. "At the plea hearing I asked you if you were satisfied with the plea and you said you were ... so let's move on."
At his plea hearing in July, Greco had dissembled about whether he knew that the loot was derived from Cook's $194 million Ponzi scheme. Cook, 39, is serving a 25-year prison sentence for masterminding the scheme that defrauded more than 700 investors around the country, mostly retirees.
Greco told Davis that he was seeing a Department of Veterans Affairs psychologist for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after serving in Iraq.
"The court will certainly take into consideration his war record," Davis said.
Greco's attorney, John Baker, acknowledged Tuesday that Greco didn't seek treatment from the VA until after he was charged with lying to authorities.
Since then, he was found not to have PTSD as originally diagnosed, but chronic adjustment disorder with narcissistic features, Baker said. He asked Davis to sentence Greco to probation, noting that his military career was likely over as a result of his crime.
Greco, wiping away tears, said he regretted his lies. "I'm just not the kind of person I'm being painted out to be."
Perzel argued that Greco is a chronic liar who seemed to be trying to hide behind the shield of his military service.
'Let me sentence him'
"I know what his problems are," Davis said, citing all the evidence he'd reviewed. "If you felt he committed the crime of the century, you shouldn't have given him a deal; you should have gone to trial .... Let me sentence him."
Perzel asked if she could reply.
"No! My goodness, you do want to get in trouble, don't you?" Davis said.
In addition to prison time, he ordered Greco to serve three years of supervised release and pay $6,000 in restitution.
"You may not like my sentence. I know you don't. But it's the appropriate one," Davis told Greco. Lying to federal agents "was another piece in the perpetuation of a great Ponzi scheme that hurt many people across the country."
another article ..
Man who lied in Trevor Cook Ponzi scheme sentenced
A Minneapolis man who hid foreign currency and valuable coins in a Mall of America storage locker for convicted Ponzi schemer Tevor Cook has been sentenced to 10 months in prison.
Jon Jason Greco, 41, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Minneapolis, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a news release.
Greco pleaded guilty in July to lying to federal investigators. He could have been sentenced to up to five years in prison.
Prosecutors accused Greco, who was indicted in March, of holding about $150,000 worth of cash, foreign currency and valuable coins for Cook. Greco told investigators that the assets were a gift from his late uncle.
Cook was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2010 for defrauding more than 900 investors in a $194 million currency trading Ponzi scheme.
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