Lawyer who duped investors with fake Facebook stock gets 46 months
A New Jersey lawyer didn’t have access to Facebook shares before the company’s 2012 initial public offering, yet he managed to get more than $4 million from two people who thought that he could sell it to them.
Attorney Fred Todd, 61, received a 46-month federal sentence Wednesday, according to NJ Advance Media. Todd’s sentence includes three years of supervised release, and a $6.53 million restitution payment.
In early 2012, Todd and two other men told investors that they had access to Facebook shares, which were very difficult to obtain at the time, since it was before the May 2012 public offering. Between March and May, duped investors wired Todd and his partners millions of dollars to purchase the shares, Advance Media reports. Two of these investors sent the group more than $4 million. Instead, the men used the money to pay off legal debts, as well as investors in other scams.
In September, Todd pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and one count of transacting in criminal proceeds.
Todd had offices in Los Angeles and Seaside Heights, New Jersey. The article mentions another scam Todd was involved in, where investors wired him money to buy condominium notes, to be sold for a profit. That didn’t happen. Todd and his two partners, who also got federal plea deals, reportedly used the money for themselves instead. One of the men, Eliyahu Weinstein, received a 22-year prison sentence. The other, Aaron Glucksman, was sentenced to 52 months, Advance Media reports.
