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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Ponzi Scammer Is Going To Prison

LOS ANGELES (CN) - A telemarketer who stole $5.5 million from old people has been sentenced to 12½ years in federal prison. Alan Libman bilked his victims through his Beverly Hills company, Investment Strategies.

Libman, 65, claimed his marks could get rich buying and selling buying and selling collectables, such as a bracelet that Joe DiMaggio supposedly gave to Marilyn Monroe. But it was a Ponzi scheme, in which Libman invested only about $100,000 in collectable items and spent the rest on himself.

Libman pleaded guilty to mail fraud and money laundering in September 2007. He grossly inflated the value of the stuff he did buy and sell, and used the same items to entice multiple victims.

In his scam, Libman sent items to investors, then suggested that he, Libman, hold them to hasten its sale. After getting the stuff back, Libman would send it to the next victim.

Prosecutors say Libman made more than $20 million from Investment Strategies and other fraudulent companies between 1994 and 2004.

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