By MITCHEL MADDUX
Last Updated: 4:26 PM, February 9, 2012
Posted: 4:25 PM, February 9, 2012
A New York City investment adviser who swindled clients out of more than $14 million was convicted today on wide-ranging fraud charges.
A Brooklyn federal jury found Joseph Mazella, 52, guilty after a 2 1/2-week trial for running what prosecutors described as an elaborate "Ponzi scheme."
Mazella, founder and president of the Great Atlantic Group Inc., a Staten Island-based real estate and financial consulting company, was convicted of securities fraud, wire fraud, and mail fraud for operating a scheme that victimized senior citizens.
Assistant US Attorneys John Nowak and Winston Paes told the jury how investors were lured by promises of iron-clad returns and interest rates that surpassed what the Blue Chip giants on Wall Street offered.
Unsuspecting investors heard pitches about grandiose real estate development schemes, but perhaps lacked the financial acumen to conduct analytical research into their economic potential.
What clients would have discovered were questionable land and real estate investments in declining Rust Belt cities such as Trenton, NJ, and Utica, NY - as well as a proposed golf course project in upstate New York that never appeared to get off the ground.
A long line of victims - many of them elderly - took the witness stand to recount how their money disappeared, with many lamenting how they lost everything after a lifetime spent scrimping.
Several broke down in tears as they recounted the promises and reassurances given them by Mazella. --
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