TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online
Father-Daughter Duo Charged In $70 Million Fraud
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: March 13, 2008
Updated: 03/13/2008 10:57 pm
Related Links
A Tampa Bay area father and daughter were accused Thursday of bilking British citizens out of $70 million in the past three years, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.
Paul Robert Gunter, 58, of Odessa, and Zibiah Joy Gunter, 25, of Oldsmar, were charged in Tampa federal court Thursday with conspiracy; mail, wire and securities fraud; and money laundering.
The criminal complaint filed Thursday by the U.S. attorney's office states that the securities fraud scheme dates to spring 2005, when the defendants and unnamed co-conspirators "hijacked the identities of dormant, publicly traded companies" and issued bogus shares of stock in those companies, selling them to victims in the United Kingdom.
Zibiah Gunter
The pitch included "high pressure and misleading sales techniques," authorities said, and resulted in the foreign investors wiring money from the United Kingdom to bank accounts in Florida.
Investigators said the Gunters used more than 50 shell companies in what the London Police Department called a "boiler-room fraud" in which 15,000 Britons — most of them senior citizens — were victims.
The Gunters are accused of using the investors' money to keep the scheme going and "for their own personal enrichment," authorities said.
The pair is in the custody of U.S. marshals in Tampa and had their first hearing in federal court Thursday afternoon. As District Court Judge Thomas B. McCoun III read the charges, Paul Gunter frequently reached over to his daughter to rub her arm or back.
"The allegations here are significant," McCoun said.
Federal officials said the charges carry a maximum sentence of more than 100 years in prison and a possible fine of twice the gross gain to the defendants or gross loss of the victims, whichever is greater.
Federal public defense attorney Howard Anderson, who represented the Gunters at their hearing Thursday, told the judge his clients were willing to turn over their passports or submit to electronic monitoring if they could be freed over the weekend to hire their own attorneys.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachelle Bedke said the Gunters were a flight risk. They remained in the custody of U.S. marshals Thursday, Bedke said. McCoun scheduled the Gunters' preliminary and bail hearings for 2 p.m. Monday.
Paul Gunter had his first appearance hearing on the felony fraud charges in the same courthouse where he filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 7 in 2002, records show.
Property appraiser's records show each Gunter owns two parcels in Pinellas County.
Paul Gunter, records show, owns two single-family homes in Palm Harbor with a combined assessed value of about $473,000.
Joy Gunter owns a single-family home and a condominium in Oldsmar with a combined value of just more than $260,000, records show.
The joint international investigation involved agents with ICE, the U.S. attorney's office, the U.S. Secret Service and the London Police Department, authorities said.
TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online Member Agreement | Privacy Statement | Work With Us
