BUFFALO — A 52-year-old citizen of the United Kingdon who was convicted of laundering money derived in a wire fraud conspiracy, was sentenced to 72 months in prison and ordered to pay $2,897,130 in restitution.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Russell T. Ippilito, who along with retired Assistant U.S. Attorney John E. Rogowski, handled the case, stated that Martin Rhys-Jones, who was extradited from Spain, oversaw a “boiler room” scam in Barcelona, Spain, which conned investors in the United Kingdom and Canada into buying nearly worthless shares of restricted stock at severely inflated prices. Customers were told they were buying more valuable, regular shares of stock.
Approximately 250 investors lost more than $2,900,000 in the scam. A portion of the criminal proceeds were funneled through a bank account in Western New York before being sent to numerous overseas accounts controlled by Jones and his co-conspirator, Arnold Wrobel, a former resident of Buffalo. Wrobel was convicted in December 2015 and is awaiting sentencing.
A total of 12 defendants were arrested in the case, four have been convicted.
The sentencing is the result of an investigation on the part of Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, under the direction of James S. Spero, Special Agent in Charge of the Buffalo Office, and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations Division, under the direction of Shantelle P. Kitchen, Special Agent in Charge.