Midnight At The Oasis

A federal felony conviction has resulted in the convicted attorney’s automatic disbarment by the New york Appellate Division for the Second Judicial Department

In his plea agreement, the respondent admitted that between November 2011 and April 2019, he and co-conspirators were involved in a Ponzi scheme whereby they made false and fraudulent representations to victim investors and potential investors to persuade them to transmit their funds via wire transfers and mail to entities and accounts controlled by the conspirators. The respondent was the co-founder, director, and president of Oasis International Group, Ltd. (hereinafter OIG), a Cayman Islands limited corporation, and the parent company for other entities created to carry out the scheme. The funds transmitted were intended to be traded in the foreign exchange market (hereinafter FOREX), but the conspirators only used a portion of the victim investors’ funds for that purpose, and the rest of the funds were used to make “Ponzi-style payments” to perpetuate the scheme, and for the conspirators’ personal enrichment. The conspirators also concealed the losses from the FOREX tradings. In addition to fraudulently inducing victim investors to transmit funds to them for FOREX trading, the conspirators also solicited “loans” from victim investors to OIG, under the guise that it would allow OIG to facilitate larger volume of FOREX trades and generate greater earnings. The conspirators also developed and administered a website containing false account balances and earnings to convince the victim investors that their funds were safe and performing. The conspirators used the funds they received from victim investors to perpetuate the scheme and fund their lavish lifestyles.

(Mike Frisch)