MANHATTAN (CN) - A man who defrauded 200 people of $6.5 million in a bogus foreign exchange operation run from a Manhattan boiler room has been sentenced to 88 months in federal prison.
Victor Altman, 39, or Brooklyn is one of 11 people indicted for the operations of Holston, Young, Parker & Associates, an alleged forex house in Manhattan. Altman was one of three managers of the fraud, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. He and his co-conspirators lied to customers and used high-pressure sales pitches; for instance, virtually everyone in the shop was called a "senior vice president," and claimed to have Hollywood celebrities and corporate CEOs as clients, prosecutors said.
The defendants didn't invest in anything, but sent their ill-gotten gains to bank accounts in Cyprus and Russia.
Altman's two fellow manager Boris Shuster already has been sentenced to 12 years and 6 months in prison; Alexander Dzedets is awaiting sentencing for fraud and conspiracy.
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