A man previously convicted of deception, forgery and theft in the United Kingdom has been arrested on federal fraud and tax charges for an investment scam that swindled investors of more than $7 million, U.S. Attorney's Office officials said Wednesday.
Robert Tringham, 64, of Diamond Bar, was arrested Tuesday after being named in an 11-count indictment by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles on May 20, said U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Thom Mrozek.
He is being held without bail until a detention hearing Friday. He will be arraigned Monday in U.S. District Court.
"I don't think the defendants think about the end game (in these schemes)," said Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Yonekura McCaffrey.
Tringham, a British expatriate, set up a Rancho Cucamonga-based First National Bancorp and solicited investors across the country to send him money to use as funds to leverage bonds, Mrozek said.
Tringham was then supposed to use the leverage to purchase bonds at discounted rates, providing investors with high rates of return when the bonds were sold, Mrozek said. Tringham was supposed to keep the money in separate accounts with a registered broker-dealer, Mrozek said.
Instead he transferred millions to himself and never sold the bonds, according to the indictment. He used the money to finance a Diamond Bar home and purchase a Land Rover, according to the indictment.
Tringham's attorney did not immediately return phone calls.
Tringham is suspected of taking more than $7 million from more than a dozen investors during 2005 and 2006.
He is charged with four counts of wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, and single counts of tax evasion, obstruction of justice, making false statement to federal investigators and criminal forfeiture.
He faces a maximum sentence of 170 years in federal prison if convicted.
Source: http://www.sgvtribune.com/news/ci_12462390
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