Nytimes_logo_1.gif (1794 bytes) @wehaitians.com  arrow.gif (824 bytes) No one writes to the tyrants  arrow.gif (824 bytes) HistoryHeads/Not Just Fade Away
News & Analysis This Month ... Only our journal brings you hours of fine reporting and research.
Correspond with us, including our executive editor, professor Yves A. Isidor, via electronic mail:
letters@wehaitians.com; by way of a telephone: 617-852-7672.
Want to send this page or a link to a friend? Click on mail at the top of this window.

news_ana_1_logo.gif (12092 bytes)

 journal.gif (11201 bytes)
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (O.E.C.D.)

bluebullet.gif (326 bytes)Must learnedly read, too; in part, of intellectual rigor

bluebullet.gif (326 bytes)Wehaitians.com, waiting for your invaluable financial assistance blue_sign_1.gif (84 bytes)Reference Search 

       
Posted Friday, November 11, 2009
         
Man who apparently emulates Madoff enters a guilty plea after defrauding Haitian-Americans of at least $14 million
          
By South Florida Business Journal
            
The second of three men charged with running a Ponzi scheme that targeted the Haitian-American community pleaded guilty Friday to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud.

Abner Alabre, 33, of Miramar, along with Brian Taglieri, 39, of Jupiter, and Ronnie Eugene Bass Jr., 37, of Miramar, were charged in October in connection with a scheme to defraud more than 600 investors throughout South Florida. No sentencing date has yet been set for Alabre.

It was alleged that, between April 2008 and March 2009, the group, through their Delray Beach-based company Homepals Investment Club LLC and its affiliates, operated as a Ponzi scheme that promised investors up to a 100 percent return in just 90 days.

Although investors were often told that these high returns would be generated through securities trading, the defendants simply used new investors' money to pay promised returns to existing investors,” according to a news release from the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

The group raised more than $12 million and investors lost more than $6 million. Part of the money was used to buy interests in a nightclub, a cigar business operated by Michael Muzio, and to pay for other personal expenses.

Muzio, 45, of Tampa, is charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering as part of the scheme.

Last month, Taglieri, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. He has not yet been sentenced.

Bass has not entered a plea.

Published Friday, December 11, 2009.
Wehaitians.com, the scholarly journal of democracy and human rights
More from wehaitians.com
Main / Columns / Books And Arts / Miscellaneous