Dentist Turned Offshore Deal Maker Pleads to Conspiracy

[Judi Lynn]

Dentist Turned Offshore Deal Maker Pleads to Conspiracy

by Christie Smythe
at ChristieSmythe

May 23, 2016 — 2:23 PM CDT
Updated on May 23, 2016 — 2:33 PM CDT

A former dentist who ran an incorporation services firm in Belize pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder $250 million in proceeds from securities fraud, marking the biggest conviction yet in a new wave of investigations into businesses that help hide money offshore.

Robert Bandfield, 71, pleaded guilty to a single conspiracy charge on Monday in Brooklyn federal court, just a little more than week before he was scheduled to go to trial, and before U.S. District Judge Leo Glasser could rule on a request to throw out much of the evidence in his case.

In his challenge, which threatened to create complications for other U.S. probes overseas, Bandfield argued that the U.S. directed Belize agents to conduct a search at his offices that violated his constitutional rights. Prosecutors said the matter was handled appropriately.

Offshore Scheme

Prosecutors charged Bandfield, his company IPC Corporate Services Inc., three brokerages and six other individuals with helping clients profit from penny stock pump-and-dump scams and laundering the profits through offshore entities. For instance, a Belize-based firm with virtually no assets, Cynk Technology Corp., rocketed to $6 billion in market value for a brief period in 2014, a pump-and-dump that Bandfield and his co-defendants helped orchestrate, according to prosecutors. The stock price eventually dropped again, and now the company is worth $29.1 million.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-23/dentist-turned-offshore-deal-maker-pleads-guilty-to-conspiracy

LBN:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141461607

[Judi Lynn]

1. U.S. Businessman Pleads Guilty in Belize Money-Laundering Scheme

U.S. Businessman Pleads Guilty in Belize Money-Laundering Scheme

Robert Bandfield faces maximum of 20 years in prison for activities linked to stock manipulation

May 23, 2016 4:52 p.m. ET

A U.S. businessman pleaded guilty Monday to helping stock manipulators launder hundreds of millions of dollars through Belize, a victory for prosecutors seeking to crack down on offshore havens.

Robert Bandfield, 71 years old, pleaded guilty in Brooklyn federal court to one count of conspiring to launder money and now faces a maximum of 20 years in prison. He had been set to begin trial next week.

Mr. Bandfield was arrested in 2014 and charged as part of a sprawling probe into overseas shell companies used by various penny-stock promoters to commit financial fraud. He is the third defendant in the case to plead guilty. Several other defendants are still at large.

Prosecutors say Mr. Bandfield, a U.S. citizen who operated a group of companies in Belize, was the architect of a scheme that allowed his clients to secretly manipulate U.S. stock prices, launder their illegal proceeds back to the U.S. and evade taxes. As part of the scheme, Mr. Bandfield created more than 5,000 shell companies in Belize and the West Indies to hide from the U.S. government his clients’ stock ownership and ill-gotten proceeds, according to prosecutors.

More:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-businessman-pleads-guilty-in-belize-money-laundering-scheme-1464036739

[Judi Lynn]

2. Accused fraudster puts U.S. global-cop role at risk

Accused fraudster puts U.S. global-cop role at risk

By CHRISTIE SMYTHE Bloomberg News

First Published May 17 2016 04:45PM • Last Updated May 18 2016 01:05 am

U.S. prosecutors are increasingly reaching beyond the border in probes of bribery, tax evasion, the rigging of financial benchmarks, even corruption within global soccer. But a dentist accused of money laundering could make such investigations harder to execute.

Robert Bandfield, 71, a U.S. citizen who practiced dentistry in Canada decades ago, is accused of masterminding a $250 million financial fraud in Belize that allegedly sold sham companies to investors from the U.S. and elsewhere to facilitate illegal trading, tax evasion and money laundering.

Bandfield denies the claims and says the U.S. should be barred from offering evidence gathered in what he claims was an illegal search of his office in the Central American country.

With his trial set to begin May 31 in Brooklyn, N.Y., Bandfield argues U.S. agents orchestrated a raid in which Belize police indiscriminately seized records.

More:
http://www.sltrib.com/home/3902466-155/accused-fraudster-puts-us-global-cop-role