Guilty Plea for Man Behind Creative E-Trade Scam
Court Alerts
A California man has pleaded guilty to opening tens of thousands of bogus online brokerage accounts and then pocketing tiny test deposits made by companies like E-Trade Financial and Charles Schwab.
Michael Largent, 23, of Plumas Lake, Calif. pleaded guilty Thursday to computer fraud charges in connection with the scam, which ran between November 2007 and May 2008.
Largent's arrest was widely covered on the Internet last May, where it was likened to so-called Salami Slicing scams depicted in movies such as Superman III and Office Spaces.
According to prosecutors, Largent wrote a script that opened more than 58,000 online accounts at instructions such as E-trade and Schwab. He used fake names, including cartoon monikers such as Hank Hill and Rusty Shackelford to open these accounts and then profited when the brokerage firms would make tiny test deposits to make sure they were linked to his account.
Typically these deposits were between $0.01 and $2 but they added up. In total he made or tried to make more than $50,000 in the scam, the Department of Justice said.
Largent is also alleged to have received more than $8,000 in micro-deposits from Google, although he was not charged with this in his May 22 indictment.
He is set to be sentenced on Aug. 13 and faces up to five years in federal prison on two computer fraud charges, a U.S. department of Justice spokeswoman said Thursday.
Related listings
-
Judge: Giuliani golf lawsuit slices off course
Court Alerts 05/21/2009A federal judge uses golf lingo and quotes from "Caddyshack" in his ruling that a lawsuit by ousted Duke University golfer Andrew Giuliani against the school landed out of bounds. The opinion issued Tuesday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Wallace Dixon reco...
-
Court: Old maternity leave doesn't count
Court Alerts 05/20/2009Women who took maternity leave before Congress outlawed pregnancy discrimination could be stuck with lower retirement paychecks after the Supreme Court refused to let four women sue AT&T Corp. for higher pension payments. The high court, in a 7-2...
-
Court refuses to hear medical marijuana challenges
Court Alerts 05/18/2009The Supreme Court won't hear another challenge to California's decade-old law permitting marijuana use for medical purposes. The high court on Monday refused to hear appeals from San Diego and San Bernardino counties, which say the justices have neve...
New York Commercial Litigation Law Firm - Woods Lonergan PLLC
Founded in 1993 by Managing Partner James F. Woods, Woods Lonergan PLLC has built a strong reputation as a resourceful and industrious firm that provides clients with clear, concise, and straightforward answers to their most challenging legal issues. Partner Lawrence R. Lonergan, who joined the firm in 2008, has been a friend and colleague to Mr. Woods for over 40 years and shares the same business philosophy. Woods Lonergan PLLC’s collective experience and expertise enables the firm to expeditiously and effectively analyze the increasing challenges clients face in an evolving business and legal world, in many instances, avoiding unnecessary time and expense to our clients. Our mission is simple: provide cutting-edge expertise and sound advice in select areas of the law for corporate and business clients. We thrive on providing each client with personalized attention, forceful representation, and a collaborative team effort that embraces collective knowledge.