Michael J. Muzio has been convicted in connection with a Ponzi and affinity-fraud scheme to six counts of securities fraud, two counts of substantive wire fraud, two counts of lying to the SEC and the FBI and one count of conspiring to commit wire fraud. Muzio was implicated in a pump and dump scheme linked to the Home Pals Investment Club.
Ronnie Eugene Bass Jr., Abner Alabre and Brian J. Talieri had previously been convicted in the scheme of targeting Haitian-Americans. The scheme is believed to have involved $14.3 million in investments.
Alabre and Taglieri pled guilty to criminal charges in October. SEC authorities accused Bass and Alabre of deceiving investors by indicating that Taglieri was there attorney though Taglieri is not an attorney.
Muzio was implicated in the scheme of defrauding investors by manipulating the stock price of International Business Ventures Group (IBVG). Muzio fooled investors into believing there existed an active market for the stock by engaging in wash transactions in which he entered buy orders through one brokerage he controlled and sell orders through another brokerage he controlled. The coordinated stock purchases and sales artificially inflated the price per share. Muzio faces decades in federal prison if convicted.
IBVG was a Florida shell company "with no assets and virtually no business activities," according to prosecutors. IBVG claimed to operate in Palm Beach Gardens. Palm Beach has been the focus of a number of financial schemes recently. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder recently characterized Palm Beach as "ground zero" for financial fraud.
Tampa criminal defense attorney John Musca explained that those accused of white-collar crimes have recently become scapegoats for a weak economy. "The media has helped perpetuate a sentiment that chief executives and financiers are crooks. Our economic troubles have made things worse leading to increased prosecutions for white collar crime and harsher sentences for white collar defendants." Because alleged white-collar crimes often involve complex financial transactions that involve a massive volume of documents, an experienced white-collar criminal attorney is essential, said Musca.
Musca Law provides the highest quality criminal litigation services to the residents of Tampa. Our Tampa Criminal Defense Attorneys have successfully tried and defended, and appealed hundreds of cases in both State and Federal courts throughout Florida. These cases include, but are not limited to, felony cases and misdemeanor cases, DUI, drug crimes, domestic violence, theft crimes, sex crimes, probation violations, white collar crimes, violent crimes, and motor vehicle crimes.
