The United States Attorney's Office announced that during a federal court session in Missoula, on April 27, 2012, before U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy, MARTY ALLEN MOORE, age 48, appeared for sentencing. MOORE was sentenced to a term of:

Prison: 24 months

Special Assessment: $200

Restitution: $89,102

Supervised Release: 3 years

MOORE was sentenced in connection with his guilty plea to wire fraud and mail fraud.

In an Offer of Proof filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy J. Racicot, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:

MOORE engaged in an investment fraud scheme that defrauded an individual, identified here as X.X., out of a confirmed amount of $57,847. MOORE and X.X. first met in the fall of 2008. Their relationship ended in June 2010 when X.X. saw MOORE charged in state court and realized that he had been defrauded.

MOORE represented that he was the owner of White Thunder LLC, a safari and outfitting business that operated throughout the United States and owned land in numerous states, including Wyoming, New Mexico, Nebraska, and Montana. MOORE caused X.X. to believe that X.X. would share in the ownership of White Thunder LLC after investing in the company. Many of the investments X.X. made were under the pretext of attorneys' fees, health insurance coverage for X.X. and his wife and son, and general operating expenses for the business. However, none of this ever happened.

MOORE used his personal e-mail address extensively to perpetrate the scheme over nearly two years. He also created fictitious online people and then roleplayed as them over electronic mail, which he used to convince X.X. of the legitimacy of the business and to further solicit X.X. for funds. X.X. never met any of these individuals. These fictitious personalities included Marc Morefson, Lewis Johnson, Roger Forendetto, and Cassandra Davis.

Johnson was purported to be an attorney for White Thunder LLC and Davis was purported to be an employee for United Hunting Services, Inc. But Davis and Johnson's e-mail addresses were both created from the same IP address, which is located in Spearfish, South Dakota. (While United Hunting Services is a real entity, it has no offices in South Dakota.) Furthermore, Davis's account was created on 12/3/09; Johnson's was created on 12/4/09 just prior to making contact with X.X.

Morefson's account was created on 1/4/10 from a computer in Mission, South Dakota. Morefson was purported to be an attorney for White Thunder LLC. Forendetto's account was created on 2/12/10 from an IP address in Amarillo, Texas. MOORE and X.X. were in Amarillo, Texas on 2/12/10. These accounts were created just prior to their first contacts with X.X.

Many of the transfers of funds were done with cash. Some were conducted using wire services. MOORE defrauded X.X. by soliciting his investments using the above lies, and persuaded X.X. to wire him money. These wires were all sent from Montana. Count I consists of a wire in the amount of $2,500, which X.X. sent at the request of "Lewis Johnson," for the supposed payment of legal and transfer fees for White Thunder LLC. The evidence will show that the emails sent to X.X. were fictitious, and no real business activity ever occurred.

With regard to Count IV, another individual identified here as Z.Z. first met MOORE in late 2008, after which MOORE defrauded Z.Z. out of a confirmed amount of $11,925 over the course of a couple months. MOORE represented that he was a real estate broker and proprietor of White Thunder Enterprises LLC, a company consisting of investors who were interested in purchasing Z.Z.'s restaurant in South Dakota. MOORE caused Z.Z. to believe that after she gave him various payments, White Thunder Enterprises LLC would pay well above the market rate for her restaurant. The market value of the restaurant was $315,000. These payments were under the pretext of attorneys' fees, administrative fees, and taxes.

MOORE used his personal e-mail address extensively to perpetrate the scheme. He also created fictitious people and roleplayed as them over electronic mail, which he used to convince Z.Z. of the legitimacy of the business and to further solicit Z.Z. for funds. Z.Z. never met any one of these alleged individuals in person. The names of these fictitious people included Sam Johnson, Zane Brost, and Mitch Bruno.

Johnson and Brost were purported to be investors interested in purchasing Z.Z.'s restaurant; Mitch was purported to be an attorney. The initiation dates for the e-mail accounts are: Johnson-11/20/08; Brost-11/27/08; Bruno-12/22/08. The Johnson account was created from an IP address located in Chamberlain, South Dakota.

Because there is no parole in the federal system, the "truth in sentencing" guidelines mandate that MOORE will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, MOORE does have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for "good behavior." However, this reduction will not exceed 15% of the overall sentence.

The investigation was conducted by the United States Secret Service.

 

 

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