Rockland County New York Residents Million Dollar Scam
Got to love these kinds of stories that sound like they came straight from an episode of one of the billion different cop/crime tv shows on television today.
This latest news came to light recently via a press release from the United States Attorney's Office out of New York's Southern District. The announcement from U.S. District Attorney Damian Williams chronicled the more than a year long fraud scheme by one Rockland County resident that resulted in his own financial benefit to the total over more than one million dollars.
Southern District of NY's Press Release Details
The following is everything known currently regarding this latest fraud scheme. USDA Williams as well as Ivan J. Arvelo, the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”) announced that Jeffrey Tognetti, Jr had been indicted for his role in this investment scheme.
In the announcement USDA WIlliams stated that...
As alleged, Jeffrey Tognetti, Jr., perpetrated a classic investment fraud scheme, lying to victims about his qualifications in order to lure supposed investments, only to misappropriate those funds...
Those lies Tognetti told his victims were that he was a licensed broker in New York, New Jersey as well as Florida with expertise in the stock market as well cryptocurrency. Tognetti also went as far as to say he worked for a hedge fund called Parallax Capital Advisors LLC and even created a technology which allowed for him to profitably trade cryptocurrency.
Tognetti then proceeded to defraud his victims. Without any form of authorization or knowledge, Tognetti "misappropriated" his victims funds either using them for his own personal gain or transferring funds to other individuals. Tognetti's alleged scheme reportedly began in July of 2022 and last until present day. In total, Tognetti solicited over $1.5 million dollars from his victims under his false pretenses.
The Current Charges Against the Accused
It should be noted that in the case of these current charges against Tognetti or any individual facing criminal charges, the charges themselves are just accusations. Determining guilt will be determined through a trial and likewise, the accused will have an opportunity to prove their innocence.
Jeffrey Tognetti, Jr of Piermont New York has been formally charged with one count of wire fraud. The penalty for this crime if found guilty is a maximum of 20 years in prison. In the press release a link was provided for individuals who believe they may have been a victim of Tognetti's alleged crimes. That link may be found here.
The court case has already been assigned to U.S. District Judge Nelson S. Román. USDA WIlliams also announced who will be handling the case for the prosecution, that individual will be Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer N. Ong of the Office’s Money Laundering and Transnational Criminal Enterprises Unit.