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

Prime Bank Scheme Took $4.8 Million|With Help From Turkish Mob, Investors Say

BROOKLYN (CN) - Attorney Stanley Salzman, of Great Neck, N.Y., was a "point man" in a $4.8 million prime bank securities fraud backed by "Turkish organized crime figures," a German corporation claims in Federal Court.

"The scheme was always the same and followed a well-known pattern known as 'Advance Fee Fraud,'" the complaint states: "members of the conspiracy would court investors with representations, proposals and offerings regarding a 'private placement program' (PPP) that would enable the investors to participate in a 'high yield investment program' (HYIP) supposedly conducted by bank trades acting for major financial institutions that are licensed by the U.S. Federal Reserve. ...

"The HYIP, as represented to investors, required a minimum amount available for investment of $100 million. Because it was clear that none of the defendants had access to legitimate investors with immediately available liquid assets in that order of magnitude, and particularly not in light of the alleged regulatory restrictions on disclosures that would be routinely required in lawful banking and securities operations, defendants represented that they minimum amount requirement could actually be met through lines of credit obtained for that purpose against a fee from major international banks."

Defendants allegedly claimed that "the HYIP was actually risk-free" because of its putative supervision by the Federal Reserve, and that all that was needed was "to 'block' the funds in the investors' own account" through a SWIFT (Society for World-Wide Interbank Financial Telecommunications" "MT 760" instruction. The defendants claimed that all the investors needed to do was to put up the bank fees and interest on the supposed line of credit - in this case, apparently, 3% of $100 million, plus the "bank fees." However, "Investors never learned the identity of all participants in the 'trading group' on grounds of stringent confidentiality requirements purportedly enforced by the Federal Reserve."

Plaintiffs Johannes Baumgartner, and the Wirtschafts-Und Vermogensberatung GMBH are represented by Ivo George Caytas.

Here are the defendants: Stanley P. Salzman Esq., Stanley P. Salzman P.C., Postbank Finanzberatung AG, BHW Bausparkasse AG, Peter Schmidt, Ambiente GMBH Blackstone Capital Trade AG, Carter Bailey Oppenheim & Dryfus Inc., J. Greenbaum, John Ralston, Fernando Faria Sampaio, Sino-Iberian Holdings Limited, It's Investment Treuhand & Service GMBH, Norbert Schramm, Ali Karli, Lider International Import & Export GMBH, Mesut Cetin, and Huseyin Coban.

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