FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
AUSA VICKIE E. LEDUC or
MARCIA MURPHY at 410-209-4885
AUGUST 16, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
STOCKBROKER SENTENCED TO OVER THREE YEARS IN PRISON FOR DEFRAUDING VICTIMS OF MORE THAN $1.2 MILLION
Used Money for Gambling, Personal Expenses, High Risk Investments
and Repayments to Prior Victims
Baltimore, Maryland - U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett sentenced Myrle Conley Grose, Jr., age 40, of Ridgeley, West Virginia, today to 14 months in prison, in addition to the 23 months already served in state custody as a result of his arrest, for fraud related to an investment scheme in which he made false representations to induce friends, relatives, customers and other individuals to give him loans or money to invest, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein. Judge Bennett also ordered Grose to pay restitution of $1,079,958.91, the amount remaining after previous payments to the victims are credited. The federal sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release.
According to his guilty plea, from September 2000 through October 14, 2004, Grose, a licensed stockbroker, convinced individuals living in Maryland and West Virginia to invest or loan him money, promising those individuals a guaranteed rate of return. Instead, Grose used the funds to pay his personal expenses, and for gambling and high risk investments. Grose also used the funds to make monthly payments to previous victims of the scheme who insisted on repayment and/or threatened to report Grose’s activities, claiming that the payments were interest or a return on their investment. Grose prepared fictitious account statements, which he mailed to the victims in order to continue the fraud. Grose allegedly obtained over $1,229,000 from 24 victims through this scheme.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Combined County Criminal Investigation of Allegany County for their investigative work and thanked Allegany County State’s Attorney Michael Twigg for his assistance. Mr. Rosenstein commended Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tamera L. Fine and Sandra Wilkinson, who prosecuted the case.