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Prosecutors on Tuesday requested a California federal decide to stay in jail with out bail who was a latest fugitive A Shameless $35 Million Fraud That Involved Him Falsely Telling Investors He was a billionaire, a Harvard MBA and a Special Forces veteran who was wounded twice in Iraq.
The FBI SWAT workforce caught fugitive Justin Costello on October 4 in a distant space close to San Diego. He had a bag of six ounce gold bars price $12,000, US foreign money price $60,000, Mexican pesos, and $10,000 in banking. playing cards and checkbooks, prosecutors mentioned in a court docket submitting.
Costello, 42, additionally had a receipt for a pay as you go telephone quantity in his backpack, in addition to a driver’s license with an image of him underneath the identify “Christian Boulter.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California cited the backpack’s contents and different elements within the submitting because it urged a decide to ship Costello to jail pending trial. Prosecutors argued that he “posed a serious flight risk and danger to the community.”
He famous that Costello didn’t give up on the FBI’s San Diego workplace as he had agreed by means of his lawyer on September 29. He was knowledgeable that he was set to face a brand new indictment associated to a number of fees in federal court docket in Washington state. For plans involving penny shares, shell firms and the hashish enterprise.
Cash and gold bars, as detailed in court docket filings in US District Court in San Diego within the case of former fugitive Justin Costello.
Source: US District Court
Instead, he “became a fugitive,” prosecutors wrote.
“The FBI tried to track Costello down from his known cellphone numbers, but was unsuccessful,” prosecutors wrote. “It is believed that Costello took counter-surveillance measures to prevent tracking devices registered on those numbers.”
The submitting revealed that the FBI was in the end capable of “track Costello through location information obtained from the theft recovery service for the Alfa Romeo vehicle,” the submitting revealed.
The submitting mentioned the SWAT workforce tracked the automobile to a distant space in El Cajon, California, the place they noticed it strolling whereas carrying a backpack.
When brokers arrested him, Costello mentioned, “he was surprised that the agents found him because he had turned off his phone.”
She additionally informed brokers that she had not surrendered as agreed, “because she had recently suffered a stroke and needed to recover.”
“Costello said he could have overtaken SWAT agents but for stroke,” the submitting mentioned. “Costello acknowledged that he was the person charged in the indictment and encouraged agents to ‘Google’ him to read about the case,” it continued.
“Costello was likely referring to very significant media coverage of both his criminal charges and subsequent flight from prosecution,” prosecutors wrote in a footnote. A CNBC article about him was published last week.
Prosecutors mentioned the FBI quickly realized that the gold within the backpack was half of a bigger amount of gold, price $94,000, that Costello bought in April “using money he stole from a banking client.”
Prosecutors mentioned investigators have decided that since mid-September, the accused had stopped utilizing his solely identified private checking account for private bills, and as a substitute made a number of makes an attempt to cowl up his tracks on-line. Was utilizing company accounts.
The “weight of the evidence” within the pending case towards Costello – the place he’s charged with wire fraud and securities fraud – is “strong and heavily documented,” he mentioned.
Costello, who has ties to La Jolla, Calif., and Las Vegas, is accused of duping hundreds of traders and others out of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} by making false claims that the businesses he managed had plans to purchase 10 different corporations. .
He can also be accused of utilizing one of many firms, Pacific Banking Corp., to divert at the least $3.6 million from three marijuana firms that have been clients to profit himself and different firms he owned.
Prosecutors have mentioned Costello allegedly used $42,000 from traders to pay for prices associated to their wedding ceremony. The occasion featured a cake and ice sculpture with the long-lasting James Bond 007 film brand in addition to belly-dancing performances by his bride.
Prosecutors mentioned Costello allegedly defrauded traders together with his tall tales of being a billionaire, an Ivy League grad and an Iraq veteran. He famous that not one of the claims have been true.
He additionally “falsely claimed that the two”[l]They have been “supported” by the ‘Oakal Titans’ of the Seattle enterprise group,” prosecutors wrote of their court docket filings. They didn’t establish the enterprise leaders by identify.
Costello is because of seem in federal court docket in San Diego on Tuesday. He is predicted to be transferred to Washington state quickly to face indictment within the US District Court for the Western District of Washington.
An lawyer representing him in a civil lawsuit by one of many marijuana firms he has been accused of fraud didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Costello additionally faces a civil swimsuit filed by the SEC on the identical day the felony fees towards him have been dropped. The swimsuit largely tracks claims in felony prosecution.
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