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Press Release

Two Individuals Charged with Securities Fraud, Money Laundering and Obstruction in Connection with Scheme to Secretly Profit From Fraudulent Stock Sales and Conceal Proceeds from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Florida

Two individuals were charged with securities fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice offenses in connection with a scheme to sell fraudulently registered shares of public companies and to hide and conceal these activities and the proceeds from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.  This case is part of the ongoing Shell Factory Fraud criminal investigation.

 

            Randy A. Hummel, Executive Assistant United States Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, and Timothy R. Langan, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office, made the announcement. 

 

Myron Gushlak, 47, a Canadian citizen who formerly resided in Miami Beach and the Cayman Islands, and Yelena Furman, a/k/a “Elena Furman,” 36, of New York, were charged by indictment with conspiracy to commit securities fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1349; five counts of securities fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1348; conspiracy to commit money laundering, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1956(h); two counts of money laundering, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1956(a)(1)(B)(i); and, obstruction of official proceeding, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1512(c)(2).  The defendants face a maximum statutory sentence of twenty-five years for the conspiracy and securities fraud counts, twenty years each for the conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering counts, and twenty years for the obstruction count, as well as a fine up to $250,000 or double the proceeds as to each.  The case is No. 17-CR-20713-CMA and is assigned to U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga in Miami. 

 

In related cases, seven defendants have been charged to date: Daniel McKelvey, 49, of Foster City, California, and Jeffrey L. Lamson, 51, of El Dorado Hills, California, were charged in Case No. 16-20546-CR-RNS; Steven Sanders, 73, of Lake Worth, Florida, and Alvin S. Mirman, 78, of Sarasota, Florida, were charged in Case No. 16-20572-CR-CMA; Sheldon Rose, 77, of Sarasota, and Ian Kass, 45, of Ft. Lauderdale, in Case No. 16-20707-CR-JEM, and David Lubin, 52, of West Hempstead, New York, in Case No. 17-20508-CR-MGC.  All seven of these defendants were convicted.   Six of the seven have already been sentenced, and sentencing for Lubin is scheduled for November 2, 2017, before U.S. District Judge Marcia G. Cooke in Miami. 

 

The indictment alleges that Gushlak was convicted of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering in Case No. 03-833-CR-NGG in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (the “EDNY Criminal Case”).  On November 18, 2010, the court sentenced Gushlak to 72-months imprisonment and ordered him to pay a $25 million fine due immediately.  After lengthy restitution proceedings, on May 15, 2012, the court ordered Gushlak to additionally pay restitution of approximately $17.4 million, also due immediately.

 

The indictment alleges that while Gushlak was on bond in the EDNY Criminal Case leading up to his November 2010 sentencing, and while he was serving his prison sentence, Gushlak, Furman, Lubin, and others participated in a scheme to fraudulently register and sell securities of public shell companies.  This included the fraudulent filing of documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), using the sister-in-law of Furman as a nominee chief executive officer (CEO).  This was done, according to the indictment, to conceal the role of Gushlak and his control over shares that were purportedly owned in the names of others.  The indictment alleges that these shares were then sold to other co-conspirators who were located in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties, Florida, and that the shares were then illegally sold to the investing public.

 

In another instance, according to the indictment, after Gushlak was sentenced to federal prison and serving his sentence, Gushlak, Furman, Lubin, Sanders, McKelvey and Lamson worked together to fraudulently sell the free-trading shares of Entertainment Art, Inc. (“EERT”).  The allegations include meetings with Gushlak while he was serving his federal prison sentence at which the conspirators discussed the details of the fraudulent transactions.  After causing false and fraudulent flings with the SEC, the shares were then sold to criminal actors.  These criminal actors were then in a position to conduct a significant pump and dump stock swindle involving Biozoom, Inc. (“BIZM”) after causing a reverse merger of EERT into BIZM.

 

The indictment alleges that, because Gushlak’s assets were frozen by the United States District Court in the EDNY Criminal Case, and he had been ordered to pay a $25 million fine and restitution of approximately $17.4 million, Gushlak, Furman, Sanders and others engaged in elaborate steps to hide and conceal the proceeds of these stock sales from the United States District Court in Brooklyn, New York.  According to the indictment, Gushlak and Furman enlisted the assistance of Sanders and others to use the trust account of an attorney in Boca Raton, Florida, to wire the funds in such a way that they would be difficult or impossible to attribute to Gushlak.  This included wiring funds to an intermediary in Switzerland and to an account controlled by Furman in New York that was used to pay Gushlak’s bills while he was in prison.

 

Mr. Hummel commended the investigative efforts of the FBI’s Miami and New York Field Offices.  Mr. Hummel also thanked the SEC’s Miami Regional Office and Washington Home Office for their assistance with the ongoing Shell Factory Fraud investigation.  This matter is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jerrob Duffy.

 

An indictment merely contains allegations and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

 

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.  

Updated October 10, 2017