Andrew Caspersen ’99 sentenced four years in prison for securities fraud

Gambling addict financier Caspersen gets four years in $38M fraud New York Daily News An Ivy league-educated financier who defrauded friends, family and even a 9/11 victim's relatives of more than $38 million to feed a gambling habit ... Judge Takes Gambling Addiction Into Account in Caspersen Sentencing - New York Law Journal (registration) Andrew Caspersen Sentenced to Four Years in Prison for Bilking Investors - Wall Street Journal Ex-NY bank exec gets 4 years in $38M fraud - Salt Lake Tribune

News & Notes: Andrew Caspersen ’99 sentenced four years in prison for securities fraud

BY CATHERINE BENEDICT   •   CONTRIBUTOR   •   NOVEMBER 8, 2016

Andrew Caspersen ’99 was sentenced to four years in prison by Judge Jed Rakoff of the Federal District Court in Manhattan for defrauding friends, family, and a charitable hedge fund foundation out of $38.5 million on Friday.

Casperson defrauded investors using an elaborate Ponzi scheme; he encouraged victims to invest their money with him, promising high returns, but instead used the money to fund his lavish lifestyle and gambling addiction.

Caspersen was arrested on March 26, 2016, at LaGuardia Airport after returning from a family vacation in Florida with wife Christina Frank Caspersen ’02 and their two children. On July 6, Caspersen, a former partner and managing director at investment bank PJT Partners’ Park Hill Group, pleaded guilty to one charge of security fraud and one charge of wire fraud.

Among others, victims of Caspersen’s Ponzi scheme included his mother and two brothers, the parents of his former girlfriend, Catherine MacRae ’00, who was killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and acquaintance James McIntyre ’99. The Moore Charitable Foundation, the charitable arm of venerable hedge fund manager Louis Bacon’s firm Moore Capital Management, was defrauded out of $25 million. Caspersen lost most of the money he gathered in risky stock trading.

“Caspersen allegedly put on a shameful charade – creating fake email addresses, setting up misleading domain names, and inventing fictional financiers,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a press statement.

The four-year sentence is notably light, as federal prosecutors had sought to sentence Caspersen to 15 years in prison, arguing his fraud would have continued were he not arrested. The maximum prison term on each of the two counts is 20 years. Rakoff is known to be opposed to federal sentencing guidelines, which encourage long prison terms and lack of consideration of mitigating circumstances.

“No purpose will be served by letting him rot in prison for years on end,” Rakoff said during the sentencing.

Caspersen’s light sentence was due to his legal team, led by Paul Shechtman, arguing that his mental health issues caused him to commit his crime. Shechtman claimed that Caspersen’s gambling addiction began during his undergraduate years at the University.  In an uncommon move, Rakoff allowed Yale University School of Medicine psychiatry professor Dr. Marc Potenza to testify that Caspersen’s fraud was due to a gambling addiction. Caspersen told Rakoff that he has suffered from depression and alcoholism and that he spent 16 days in the hospital for mental health issues following his March arrest.

Caspersen graduated from the University with a degree in economics and a thesis entitled “The Future of the NYSE Specialist” before enrolling at Harvard Law School.

http://dailyprincetonian.com/news/2016/11/news-notes-andrew-caspersen-99-sentenced-four-years-in-prison-for-securities-fraud/

Shop manager stole £31,000 from penny press machine scam to fund his gambling addiction

How Jason Metcalfe plundered £32,000 from The Deep’s penny presses

By Hull Daily Mail  |  Posted: October 21, 2016

By Simon Bristow

Read more at http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/how-jason-metcalfe-plundered-32-000-from-the-deep-8217-s-penny-presses/story-29827336-detail/story.html#VrslRHxddlBtmGPG.99

Shop manager stole £31,000 from penny press machine scam to fund his gambling addiction

• 11:30, 21 OCT 2016
• UPDATED 11:30, 21 OCT 2016
• BY PATRICK LION , SIMON BRISTOW

Father-of-two Jason Metcalfe, 43, was jailed for two years and three months for the theft and may lose his home amid legal action to recover the money

Jason Metcalfe stole almost £90,000 over six years as a gift shop manager at the aquarium

A gift shop manager stole more than £30,000 from penny press machines to fund his gambling addiction.

Jason Metcalfe, 43, spent six years siphoning off takings from the penny presses at The Deep aquarium tourist attraction in Hull.

The father-of-two also plundered another £58,000 from tills at the store, cashing up fake refunds and pocketing the money.

Hull Crown Court heard the penny presses, which customers put a pound into and receive a pressed penny as a souvenir, were emptied by Metcalfe.

Metcalfe stole £31,000 from the penny press machines at The Deep in Hull (stock photo)

He would keep some of the cash and put the remainder through the tills.

The court heard Metcalfe used the cash to cover his gambling debts and spent "all his waking moments thinking about gambling".

His crime was described as a "betrayal" of his colleagues, The Hull Daily Mail reports.

Metcalfe, who had never been in trouble before, then had the "embarrassment" of telling his young family what he had done.

He is now being sued for £113,000 and is likely to lose his house, the court heard.

Metcalfe's wife is standing by him and attended court alongside members of Gamblers Anonymous and GamCare to see him jailed for two years and three months yesterday.

Metcalfe, of Hamlyn Avenue, west Hull, admitted seven counts of fraud, three of theft, and three of converting criminal property.

In total, he stole £58,000 cash from the tills through false refunds, and £31,000 from the shop's "penny press" machines.

Metcalfe's crimes cost lower paid members of staff their bonuses, the court heard, while staff became less trustful of each other.

The Deep's insurers covered the loss, but it was not reimbursed for the cost of recruiting a replacement for Metcalfe, and is facing higher insurance premiums.

Speaking after the hearing, Colin Brown, chief executive of The Deep, told the Mail: "We would like to thank the police for their hard work and support in bringing the case to court.

"I think the biggest emotion is one of disappointment, really. There has to be trust between employer and employees, and we feel that trust was betrayed in this situation.

"It was one individual and we move on."

Metcalfe was employed as a retail manager, and was responsible for purchasing, pricing and merchandising at the gift shop, which allowed him to cover his tracks for six years.

But an internal investigation was launched after anomalies with the penny press takings, and the unusually large number of refunds, came to light.

The company which supplied the machines free of charge was supposed to get 40 per cent commission.

Metcalfe began stealing to replace money in his bank account he was blowing on gambling. No details of his gambling activities were given.

Prosecutor Stephen Welch said: "Metcalfe said that he had a gambling problem and that he had gone through a very low period after the death of his mother.

"He started to gamble with his own money and The Deep's.

"When his offending came to light, he told his employers he was very sorry, that he loved his job and had never done anything like this before."

Antony Farrell, for Metcalfe, said: "Mr Metcalfe is truly remorseful and is disgusted with his actions, and the way he's let numerous people down.

"He has been married for 18 years and has a son and daughter."

Although he was now getting help, at the time Metcalfe "spent all his waking hours thinking about gambling", Mr Farrell said.

Recorder David Dixon told Metcalfe: "There are two very different sides to you that I'm going to have to balance in terms of sentence.

"There's the side of a good, hard-working family man, and on the other side, a man that was hiding and deceiving his employers, and taking substantial amounts of money."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/shop-manager-stole-31000-penny-9094583

Hollywood Casino, Pennsylvania: Middletown woman pleads guilty to embezzling $535,000

Middletown woman pleads guilty to embezzling $535,000

POSTED 2:31 PM, OCTOBER 21, 2016, BY FOX43, UPDATED AT 02:33PM, OCTOBER 21, 2016

HARRISBURG, PA. — A Middletown woman pled guilty to embezzling over a half-million dollars in stolen insurance funds.  Diane M. Fabian, 66, was an employee of Wolf Strite Insurance Agency, and later Don Jacobs Insurance Services, Inc.  Starting in at least 2008, she began forging customer names on company checks and would deposit the funds to her own account.  To get the checks, she would inform the company that a client had been overbilled or that a refund was due – when in fact it was not.  In other instances, insurance companies such as Liberty Mutual would issue a refund check, but Fabian would forge the customer’s name, deposit the check and keep the money.

Fabian pleaded guilty Thursday to 76 charges of forgery, theft by deception, and theft by failure to make required disposition, scheming at least $535,000 in stolen insurance funds.

 Fabian admitted the scheme to detectives.  She said that she was addicted to gambling, and spent much of the money at Hollywood Casino.  She has since self-excluded herself from the casino.  Most of the charges are third-degree felonies, each of which carries a 7-year statutory maximum.  Fabian is set to be sentenced by the Hon. John F. Cherry on January 5, 2017.  Lower Paxton Detective James Glucksman worked on this case, as did the Insurance Department of Pennsylvania, and prosecutors David Wilson and A.J. Jarbola.

If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call the Council on Compulsive Gambling of Pennsylvania’s helpline (800) 848-1880 or the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs’ Gambling Addiction Hotline (877) 565-2112. For more information regarding compulsive and problem gambling, please visit http://gamingcontrolboard.pa.gov/?p=66

SOURCE: Dauphin County District Attorney

http://fox43.com/2016/10/21/middletown-woman-pleads-guilty-to-embezzling-535000/

Former South Amherst clerk gets prison, probation for $677,000 theft

Brad Dicken| The Chronicle-Telegram

Published on Sept. 2, 2016

ELYRIA — South Amherst residents were so angry about former village Clerk/Treasurer Kim Green’s theft of $677,000 in village funds that some considered desecrating her parents’ graves, Mayor Dave Leshinski said shortly before Green was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs Thursday.

“You are not welcome in this town. People wanted to desecrate your parents’ graves,” Leshinski said, adding that he had discouraged that or following through on other threats against Green and her property.

Green, 54, hung her head through most of the hearing before county Common Pleas Judge James Miraldi, who sentenced her to six months in the Lorain County Jail with work release privileges so she can earn money to make partial restitution to the village.

Miraldi, who also placed Green on five years of probation, warned her that if she didn’t behave and work to repay the money she stole, he would send her to prison for six years.

Based on money and winning Ohio Lottery tickets seized by investigators, the sale of her family’s home and a monthly payment plan that Green and her husband, former Village Councilman John Green, have agreed to, she will pay back more than $100,000 over the next five years, defense attorney Jack Bradley said.

John Green wasn’t charged in connection with the money his wife stole from the village, and police have previously said they hadn’t found any evidence linking him to her crimes.

Kim Green was appointed clerk/treasurer in 2010 and won a full term in 2012. She resigned in April 2015 and pleaded guilty earlier this year to charges of theft, theft in office and tampering with records.

On Thursday, Green blamed a gambling addiction for her decision to take the village’s money, which prosecutors said she spent on herself and Ohio Lottery tickets, many of which she purchased at the gas station in the village where she also worked.

Ohio Auditor Dave Yost has said it appeared Green wrote checks to herself and then cashed them. An internal investigation by Yost’s office determined the checks Green wrote to herself should have set off alarms among his staff and two of his workers were fired over the matter. A third was demoted.

Leshinski told Green the money she stole was “used for your own personal pleasure and gratification” without thinking about the impact on the village.

“The theft has left the people bewildered, upset and very angry,” he said.

Green said she is now receiving therapy, is a member of a Gamblers Anonymous group in Cuyahoga County and working to create a chapter of the organization in Lorain County.

Green said she wanted to take responsibility for her actions.

“I am so sorry,” she told Miraldi. “Three words that mean so much and, in my case, not enough.”

Green said she hadn’t realized she was depressed and suffering from an addiction to gambling until it was too late.

“I have broken a trust I worked my whole life to earn,” she said.

Leshinski and Village Councilwoman Donna Houck both said that the missing money had harmed the village. Houck also expressed skepticism that Green would make good on her pledge to repay all the money she stole.

Bradley said Green is earning $9 an hour at her current job, but is hoping for a raise to $10 per hour soon.

http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/Local-News/2016/09/02/Former-South-Amherst-clerk-gets-prison-probation-for-677-000-theft.html

'I LOST THREE HOMES' ‘I was £135,000 down when I was earning £130,000 a year’ – Chelsea legend Kerry Dixon reveals his extreme gambling addiction that left him in jail

'I LOST THREE HOMES' 

‘I was £135,000 down when I was earning £130,000 a year’ – Chelsea legend Kerry Dixon reveals his extreme gambling addiction that left him in jail

Former England striker admitted his gambling addiction started at the age of 13

EXCLUSIVE

BY KERRY DIXON

31st August 2016

THEY say gambling is a mug’s game and I am one of the biggest mugs going.

It’s true that gambling is something of a disease in the football profession, but I went much further.

GETTY IMAGES

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Former Chelsea player Kerry Dixon endured a 

terrible gambling addiction

ARFA GRIFFITHS / GRIFFITHS PHOTO

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“I was £135,000 down when I was earning £130,000 a year”

Some of my experiences proved to be downright surreal, even life-threatening.

Gambling was the root of all evils for me. It left me penniless and desperate, led me into many dangerous situations until I eventually ended up in prison.

There were occasions when I would have a drink late at night then drive home because I couldn’t afford a taxi.

How stupid could I be?

The chaos I caused personally would eventually derail my football career. My wages were good for those days, but I didn’t keep hold of a penny. It was all frittered away.

I became addicted to gambling aged 13 but I had no idea it was an obsession that would be my downfall.

By the time I reached the peak of my career it had become a disease that had taken a firm grip on my life.

I remember nipping down to Ascot one day and leaving with £35,000 in cash. One bookie had to close up as a result of my big betting.

I bet on some horses that I think are still running. I once put £4,000 on a horse that didn’t even run.

team

PA:PRESS ASSOCIATION

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Dixon went on to play 335 times for Chelsea

The losses mounted up alarmingly quickly and I began to find myself in terrible trouble with bookies, to the extent that over the years I have lost three homes.

I played football and gambled in a vicious circle in which all the money made playing went into gambling.

At one point in my Chelsea career, I was £135,000 down when I was earning £130,000 a year at my peak.

I urgently needed bailing out and went to the manager, Bobby Campbell, for help.

I’m guessing he went to the chairman and, whatever they decided to do, they sorted out some sort of deal. The bookies settled for £25,000 as a one-off payment and the club insisted that all my betting accounts were closed down.

Kerry Dixon talks about his favourite goal for Chelsea against Arsenal in 1984

But it was probably only a matter of weeks before the debts began mounting up again.  I was out of control.

This was when the bookies began to send threatening messages. They were plain in saying they would soon be dispatching the heavies.

It got to the point where Chelsea chairman Ken Bates sent me to an addiction centre. I was supposed to go two days a week for a ten-week course but I only went three times.

I never wanted to leave Chelsea, but when Southampton came in with an offer in 1992 I had no option but to take it. My accumulated debts were to be paid out of my new contract, so it was a problem solved overnight.

EMPICS SPORT

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Dixon revealed the time he lost his money, his brewery and went to jail

An awful lot of money came in but it went out just as quickly. No one knew how badly I had fallen on hard times and I am sure they wouldn’t have sympathised if they did. I’d had enough chances and squandered them.

Towards the end of my career I took over a pub in Dunstable and had a nasty shock when the brewery demanded a business plan and £40,000 up front.

I was already more than £5,000 behind in beer sales, so the brewery began foreclosure and demanded £10,000.

I just didn’t have it. So they set a date by when I had to quit the pub.

I looked around at other potential venues as I liked being a landlord. But in 2000 the brewery had me declared bankrupt, ending any hopes I had of continuing the career.

When I went to prison last year, my lifelong gambling addiction actually helped me in a perverse sort of way.

You needed a thick skin and I had developed that through taking so many knocks and learning to fight back.

When I was inside I hoped at least the rest of the world would leave me in peace.

Not a bit of it. I received a threatening letter from the legal-aid system claiming I owed more than £5,000 in legal fees and that the bailiffs had been called.

People say that it’s tough at the top, but it’s a damn sight tougher at the bottom.

Extracts from Up Front by Kerry Dixon and Harry Harris (John Blake Publishing) available Friday priced  £17.99.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/1706417/i-was-135000-down-when-i-was-earning-130000-a-year-chelsea-legend-kerry-dixon-reveals-his-extreme-gambling-addiction-that-left-him-in-jail/

VIDEO ON LINK

'I'm ashamed,' ex-Sandusky lawyer Karl Rominger says as he gets state prison for stealing $767K

By Matt Miller 

August 17, 2016

In in his heyday as a defense attorney, Karl Rominger was aggressive, even brash on behalf of his clients.

A far more humble, even tearful Rominger stood before a judge in a Cumberland County courtroom Wednesday afternoon and received a 5 1/2- to 18-year state prison sentence for stealing more than $767,000 from his clients.

The pilfered money, some of which was stolen from an estate that helps finance the Bethesda Mission for the homeless in Harrisburg, went to feed his gambling addiction, said Rominger, who was part of the defense team for Jerry Sandusky's child-sex trial.

"I'm ashamed. I'm very ashamed of what I've done," the 43-year-old Carlisle man told Adams County Judge Michael George, who presided specially in the case. "It's something I can't undo, I can't take back."

"When you gamble, it feeds itself," Rominger said, choking up. "Someday I'd like to make it all right."

Rominger, who has surrendered his law license, seemed stunned when George announced his punishment.

It could have been worse. First Assistant District Attorney Jaime Keating asked for a 7 1/2- to 15-year prison term, citing the wave of harm the thefts caused to Rominger's clients. That damage was mitigated only partially by payments from the Pennsylvania Lawyers Fund for Client Security that made some of the 18 victims financially whole, Keating said.

George did honor Keating's request for an 18-year probation sentence in addition to the jail time.

Keating questioned whether gambling was the sole motivation for the crimes. Avarice was its accomplice, he said.

"It was more than just gambling. It was living the high life beyond his means," Keating said. "This defendant used his law license as a license to steal."

He called a defense proposal for a sentence that would have allowed Rominger enough liberty to keep working so he could pay installments on restitution "unrealistic," given the amount of money that was stolen.

Rominger didn't lack support as he awaited his fate. Defense attorney Heidi Eakin asked those crowded into the courtroom to stand if they were there on Rominger's behalf. Thirty-two people, well over half the crowd, stood up.

Eakin said Rominger has undergone "rather intensive therapy" for his gambling addiction, which first gripped him in 2010. Also, she said, he has filed documents with the state gambling commission to bar him from even entering any Pennsylvania casino for the rest of his life.

"This gambling has led Karl to lose pretty much everything," Eakin said. His remaining assets, except for a $1,500 pickup truck, "would fit into a corner of this courtroom," she said.

Keating called several victims to make impact statements. Natasha Humphreys-Alamo, told how Rominger diverted an insurance settlement her hard-pressed family was to receive from an auto accident.

"That insurance settlement was all we had," she said. Rominger betrayed her not only as an attorney, but as a friend, Humphreys-Alamo said. Like Keating, she said she believes high living as much as gambling caused the thefts.

"I believe Karl got caught up in the business of being a good, upscale attorney," she said. "Our money is what paid for that."

Still, she said she doesn't hate Rominger and didn't want him to receive a long jail term, especially for the sake of his young son. "But I do believe there has to be a punishment for this crime," she added.

Chuck Wingate, Bethesda Mission's executive director, said Rominger's thefts from the estate cost the charity $75,000 to $100,000 in income, forcing it to deplete its reserves to meet an ever-growing need.

"Our clients and guests are the most vulnerable people in town," he said. "As Christians, we have forgiven Mr. Rominger. But we do know that actions have consequences."

In passing sentence, George said he believes Rominger's remorse is genuine. Still, the judge said Rominger's "breach of trust" can't be ignored.

"You have caused a lot of harm to a lot of people," George said. 

Rominger's legal troubles didn't end when sheriff's deputies slapped him in handcuffs, loaded him in a van and drove him off to prison. 

He still faces sentencing in federal court on his guilty plea to $116,000 worth of federal tax fraud charges for not reporting his stolen income to the IRS.

http://www.pennlive.com/news/2016/08/im_ashamed_ex-sandusky_lawyer.html