Defendant in $670M scam enters guilty plea in Va.

Court Alerts

A man who cooked the books for a $670 million insurance industry scam pleaded guilty Monday to charges he helped mislead thousands of investors worldwide.

Jorge Luis Castillo, 56, Hackettstown, N.J., entered pleas in U.S. District Court to conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud in U.S. District Court. He is scheduled for sentencing May 22 and could receive up to 20 years in prison and fined up to $250,000.

Castillo, who originally was scheduled for trial in 2012, will assist the government's prosecution of Minor Vargas Calvo, 60, the president and majority owner of Provident Capital Indemnity Ltd., a Costa Rican company. He is scheduled for trial in February. He has pleaded not guilty to similar charges.

The government called Castillo a "gatekeeper" for Provident. As a certified public accountant, he cast himself as an "outside auditor" and falsely reported a rosy financial picture for the company, which had a global client base.

"This is truly an international fraud in scope," U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride said in a conference call after Castillo entered his plea. "As a result of Mr. Castillo's crimes, a lot of people lost life savings to life settlement companies because of the worthless guarantees that Mr. Castillo helped create.

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Grounds for Divorce in Ohio - Sylkatis Law, LLC

A divorce in Ohio is filed when there is typically “fault” by one of the parties and party not at “fault” seeks to end the marriage. A court in Ohio may grant a divorce for the following reasons:
• Willful absence of the adverse party for one year
• Adultery
• Extreme cruelty
• Fraudulent contract
• Any gross neglect of duty
• Habitual drunkenness
• Imprisonment in a correctional institution at the time of filing the complaint
• Procurement of a divorce outside this state by the other party

Additionally, there are two “no-fault” basis for which a court may grant a divorce:
• When the parties have, without interruption for one year, lived separate and apart without cohabitation
• Incompatibility, unless denied by either party

However, whether or not the the court grants the divorce for “fault” or not, in Ohio the party not at “fault” will not get a bigger slice of the marital property.

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