DEFENDANTS SENTENCED FOR DEFRAUDING INVESTORS

R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Michael E. Yasofsky, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, Miami Field Office, and Jonathan I. Solomon, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami Field Office, announced that defendant Leonard P. Bogdan, Jr. was sentenced today by United States District Court Judge Jose E. Martinez to 360 months' imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, and restitution in the amount of $8.3 million.

The sentencing follows an eleven-day trial in February and March 2007, during which the jury found Bogdan guilty on all sixteen (16) counts of the Indictment, in which he was charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud; a scheme to defraud (mail fraud); and money laundering.

Judge Martinez also sentenced co-defendant James P. Hollis to 70 months' imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, and restitution in the amount of $4 million. On the eve of trial, James Hollis pled guilty to Count 1 and Count 9 of the Indictment, which charged that Hollis and his co-defendants devised a scheme to defraud and obtain money by means of false and fraudulent pretenses and mail fraud.

As the evidence presented at trial showed, the defendants were associated with multiple related investment companies throughout St. Lucie and Martin Counties. The defendants designed various programs to attract investors and recruited sales representatives to solicit investors. The defendants made false representations and omitted material facts to convince individuals to invest. Consequently, investors paid millions of dollars in one or more of these programs believing that their investments were successfully earning the high returns that were promised. Many of the 40 plus witnesses the government called to testify were elderly, some of whom had individually lost over $200,000. Total loss to all victims was approximately $8 million.

Mr. Acosta commended the investigative efforts of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Postal Service, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, and the State Attorney's Office. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Diana M. Acosta.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.