FBI sentences man for a $3.4 Million Forex trading fraud
The American Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) has announced that a Quincy man swindled more than two dozen investors out of $3.4 million in an exotic foreign exchange fraud run from his Quincy home.
Marcellus Lopes Lee was indicted in U.S. District Court recently on fraud and other charges stemming from an investment scam he allegedly carried out between 2007 and 2009.
When investors called or emailed Lee at Taurus Global Markets Ltd., they thought they were reaching him in Belize or the Bahamas, where he said the company’s offices were. But prosecutors say he was likely at home in Quincy taking calls forwarded from phones in empty offices in those countries.The company’s offices, phone numbers, employees, web site and the data it shared with investors were all fake, prosecutors allege.
Lee convinced investors across the U.S. and Canada that Taurus was a legitimate forex trading firm, and according to a U.S. District Court indictment, investors wired money in large chunks ranging from $15,000 to $500,000. When he did return small amounts of money to investors, he told them it was all that remained after heavy trading losses.
Investors thought the money would be traded in foreign exchange markets, but prosecutors say Lee simply kept the money for himself. Lee spent some of the money on cars, and built a new house at 66 Center St. in Quincy, prosecutors say.
Lee was investigated by the FBI and the IRS. He’s being prosecuted by U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz’s office, and he faces significant jail time and fines.
Sources: bizjournals
