{"id":8681,"date":"2015-01-21T14:43:52","date_gmt":"2015-01-21T22:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=8681"},"modified":"2015-01-21T14:46:13","modified_gmt":"2015-01-21T22:46:13","slug":"two-execs-plead-guilty-atm-scam-involving-100-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=8681","title":{"rendered":"Two Execs Plead Guilty to an ATM Scam Involving More Than $100 Million"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \"u.s.DISTRICT<\/a>LOS ANGELES<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 The president of a Calabasas firm that was used to run a Ponzi scheme that caused investors to loss more than $100 million plead guilty Wednesday to federal fraud charges.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Joel Barry Gillis,<\/strong> 74, of Woodland Hills, plead guilty in relation to a 13-year-long scheme that collected hundreds of millions from investors who were told their money would be used to purchase profitable automated teller machines, according to officials.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Victims were prohibited from visiting locations were ATMs were supposedly placed, officials said.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Another defendant charged in the scheme related to Nationwide Automated Systems, Inc. or NASI \u2013 Edward Wishne<\/strong>r, 76, also of Woodland Hills, who held various titles at NASI, including vice president \u2013 plead guilty on Jan. 13 in the case that bilked approximately 2,000 investors.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Gillis and Wishner each plead guilty to conspiracy, two counts of mail fraud and one count of wire fraud. As a result of their guilty pleas, each defendant faces a statutory maximum sentence of 80 years in federal prison.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Both men are scheduled to be sentenced on March 30.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 According to the evidence, this is what happened, officials said:<\/strong><\/div>\n
    \n
  • \u00a0Gillis and Wishner operated NASI, which purported to place, operate and maintain ATMs in high-traffic locations, such as hotels, casinos and convenience stores.<\/li>\n
  • NASI claimed that it operated approximately 31,000 ATMs and was involved in more than $1 billion in ATM transactions every month.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  • Victim-investors paid a flat amount \u2013 typically $12,000, but in some cases as much as $19,800\u2013 to buy a specific ATM, each of which was to be installed at a specific location.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  • Gillis and Wishner told victim-investors that NASI would lease back the ATMs and pay investors 50 cents for each transaction performed at their particular ATM, guaranteeing annual returns of 20 percent on each ATM.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  • NASI did make monthly payments to investors, but that money came from other investors.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  • While NASI did operate a small number of ATMs \u2013 no more than 250, which were owned by the company and not investors \u2013 the overall operation was a sham. Gillis and Wishner prevented investors from discovering the fraudulent nature of the business by providing bogus monthly reports to the investors that falsely detailed the supposed performance of the investors\u2019 ATMs.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  • Gillis and Wishner also included a \u201cnon-interference\u201d provision in the lease agreements that prohibited victim-investors from visiting the locations where their ATMs were supposedly located.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span> The scheme unraveled this past summer.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n
    In August, \u201cNASI bounced approximately $3 million in checks that had been sent by NASI as monthly returns to victim-investors,\u201d according to the charging document in the case. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n
    \u201cBy the end of the month, NASI had drained its bank account, drawing it down to a balance of less than $200,000.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n
    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But, even as the Ponzi was collapsing, Gillis and Wishner continued to raise another $4 million from victim-investors.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u00a0 LOS ANGELES \u2013 The president of a Calabasas firm that was used to run a Ponzi scheme that caused investors to loss more than $100 million plead guilty Wednesday to federal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[1146],"class_list":["post-8681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-main-slider","tag-atm-fraud"],"yoast_head":"\nTwo Execs Plead Guilty to an ATM Scam Involving More Than $100 Million<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two Execs Plead Guilty to $100 Million ATM Scam\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=8681\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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