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Internet
Fraud Mastermind Gets 10 Years in U.S Jail
March 11, 2005 -- Sacramento - A
former Edmonton man, the self-acknowledged mastermind behind
an international scheme that bilked 15,000 investors of nearly
$60 million US, was sentenced Friday to 10 years in U.S federal
prison.
Alyn
Richard Waage, 58, also formerly of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico,
and San Jose, Costa Rica, created Tri-West Investment Club
in mid 1999, which grew to what prosecutors called one of
the largest Internet investment frauds in the United States.
He
was the last person in custody to be sentenced in the case,
after pleading guilty in May to mail fraud, wire fraud and
conspiracy to commit money-laundering.
Prosecutors
said the investment club was nothing more that a vast Ponzi
scheme, where money from new investors went to pay older investors
from around the world who were guaranteed a high return at
no risk. Investors had to put down $1,000 and were promised
a 120 percent return.
Two
other Canadians, Alyn Waages's sister Lynn Waage Johnston
and Evan Theodore Smith Pryor, have also been charged but
remain at large.
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