12:17 AM :: Stephen (contact)

The Benlolo Brothers: A reader points out a new development in the Domain Name Registry of America scam I wrote about in July 2003. According to the Globe and Mail (subscription required), the authors of the scam, the Benlolo brothers, have received their just deserts for a different offense:

Pair trade mansions for prison:
Brothers who stole $4-million in scams believe they did nothing wrong

The Globe and Mail
Saturday, October 2, 2004
By Gay Abbate

Alan and Elliot Benlolo were living a good life with their mansions, flashy vehicles and a seemingly endless supply of money. But yesterday, the brothers were forced to exchange their palatial homes for cells in a federal penitentiary, for running two scams that netted them about $4-million.

They were also ordered to pay $2.3-million in fines and restitution.

. . .

The Ontario Superior Court judge sentenced each brother to 42 months in prison for a stock-swap fraud and to three years for their latest venture, a phony telephone invoice venture. They will serve the two sentences concurrently and be eligible for parole after 14 months.

. . .

The stock swap offered investors around the world stock in non-existent microchip companies in 1999 and 2000. The brothers had pleaded guilty in July to being part of a fraudulent international scheme.

For their phone-invoice scheme, they enlisted their younger brother Simon and a friend, Victor Serfaty. They mailed out thousands of phony invoices in 2000, telling small businesses they owed $25.52 for advertising on their yellow-page Internet directory.

Only those reading the fine print would realize the invoice was not real.

. . .

Alan served six months in a United States jail in 1999 for mail fraud. The U.S. government is still trying to collect a $1-million judgment from a civil lawsuit.