South Florida Attorney Sentenced to 7 Years for Securities Fraud
Securities attorney James Schneider has been ordered to pay nearly $20 million in restitution to more than 2,100 investors.
February 15, 2019 at 02:40 PM
2 minute read
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission building in Washington. Photo: Michael A. Scarcella
A Boca Raton attorney has been ordered to spend seven years in prison after spending a half-decade as a co-conspirator in a securities fraud scheme.
James Schneider was sentenced Thursday after being convicted by a federal jury in December for his role in a pump-and-dump scheme using shell companies from 2008 to 2013.
U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno in Miami also ordered the lawyer to forfeit $4.8 million and pay $19.7 million in restitution to 2,156 investors.
Schneider and 11 defendants had been accused of registering fraudulent companies with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and using forged documents to sell the shares on the open market. As part of their plot, the defendants maintained control of the shares and raked in profits on sales.
Schneider, a securities lawyer for more than four decades, and his associates made more than $5.6 million through the plan, the U.S. attorney's office said in a release.
Schneider was accused of drafting fraudulent documents stating the owners of the shell companies were not affiliated with one another. Prosecutors charged he also produced fake billing records to make it appear he was taking direction from the CEOs of the shell companies rather than his co-conspirators.
Following a two-week trial, the jury convicted Schneider of 33 counts of conspiracy, securities fraud, wire fraud and money-laundering offenses.
Schneider also was a defendant in a related SEC civil lawsuit charging blank-check companies were created “for sale by reverse merger with a deceptive public float of purportedly unrestricted securities.”
The U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of Florida did not respond to requests for comment by deadline.
Schneider's attorney, Mintz & Gold partner Ira Sorkin, also did not reply.
Two other securities attorneys — David Lubin in New York and Andrew Wilson in California, have been convicted in the same scheme.
Related stories:
Federal Jury Convicts Broward Lawyer of Securities Fraud, Money Laundering
Broward Lawyer Charged With Securities Fraud, Money Laundering
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