Print this article
Fake investment advisor gets 18 years in hoosegow
FWR Staff
4 March 2008
A Massachusetts fraudster bilked more than 250 customers over two decades. Frank Russo, an unregistered investment advisor based in Wakefield, Mass., has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for investment advisor fraud and 19 counts of mail fraud.
Unsatisfied Russo has also been ordered to sell his house in Wakefield to help him pay back about $2 million to those he ripped off.
Running a scam that started in the 1980s, Russo defrauded more than 250 investors, claiming that he would put their assets in conservative funds. Instead, he invested in much riskier enterprises, forging statements to prove that his investment choices were profitable for his customers.
"Nobody's really satisfied," Russo victim Jim Cipollo told UPI last week. "I mean, he's ruined people's lives." -FWR
Purchase reproduction rights to this article.