Eric Cusimano, former owner of BestDamnPennystocks.com and related websites, pled guilty yesterday to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and to tax evasion. He could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for March 26th. While I do think that Eric Cusimano is scum he did at least have the decency to insist that the government drop charges against his wife as part of his plea deal.
As part of the plea, Cusimano turned over over $1.2 million, two pieces of property in New York’s southern tier, a boat, several “valuable” pieces of jewelry, and $340,000 which he had stored in accounts in Panama and Belize
Of course the forfeiture is only a small portion of the over $7 million that investigators say Cusimano made over the four year period.
See these local news stories on the plea for more details:
Federal court seizes millions from former Jamestown man, sets record
Chautauqua County stockbroker pleads guilty to duping investors
I have written about Cusimano’s legal troubles a few times over the last several months:
Promoters Eric Cusimano & Jamie Boye indicted
Full text of the Bestdamnpennystocks.com Cusimano/Boye indictment
Update on USA v. Cusimano & Boye
Prosecutors close to plea deals with stock promoters Boye and Cusimano
Jamie Boye, a stock promoter who worked closely with Cusimano and who was also charged in this same case, remains in plea talks with prosecutors, and and in the mean time the trial has been adjourned until February 6th:
With respect to Defendant Boye, the parties have been actively discussing a pretrial resolution, and a draft plea agreement has been prepared and provided to the defendant for review. Additional time is necessary for defense counsel to review the draft plea with Defendant Boye and to finalize plea discussion with the
government. Therefore, the parties are requesting additional time to allow a change of plea and sentence to occur in the present case relating to Defendant Boye.
Recent court filings:
GOVERNMENT’S NOTICE OF THIRD MOTION FOR AN ADJOURNMENT OF THE RULE 48(b) DISMISSAL ORDER (12/18/2014)
ORDER FOR ADJOURNMENT (12/18/2014)
Disclaimer: I have no relationship with any parties mentioned above. This blog has a terms of use that is incorporated by reference into this post; you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well.