California man steals $50 million using fake investment sites, gets 7 years

A 59-year-old man from Irvine, California, was sentenced to 87 months in prison for his involvement in an investor fraud ring that stole $50 million between 2012 and October 2020.

Allen Giltman and other fraudsters used over 150 fraudulent sites impersonating financial institutions that advertised various investment opportunities (primarily certificates of deposit with higher than average rates of return to lure victims in) and solicited money from investors.

These investment scam websites were promoted via Google and Microsoft Bing ads, targeting phrases like "best CD rates" or "highest cd rates."

According to court documents, the scammers impersonated Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) broker-dealers, claiming to be employed by the financial institutions they spoofed on the scam sites. This allowed them to trick over 70 victims who sought investment opportunities into wiring roughly $50 million.

"After discovering one of the fraudulent websites, victims would contact an individual via telephone or email as directed on the sites. As alleged in the Information, this individual was Giltman. During his communications with victims of the fraud scheme, Giltman impersonated real FINRA broker-dealers by using their names and FINRA CRD numbers," the U.S. Justice Department said in a Tuesday press release.

"Giltman would then provide the victims with applications and wiring instructions for the purchase of a CD. The funds wired by the victims would then be moved to various domestic and international bank accounts, including accounts in Russia, the Republic of Georgia, Hong Kong, and Turkey. None of the victims received a CD after wiring the funds."

Throughout the scheme, Giltman and his co-conspirators used various tactics to hide their true identities, including virtual private networks (VPNs), prepaid phone and encrypted apps to communicate with their targets, prepaid gift cards to register web domains, and fake invoices to explain the large wire transfers they received from their victims.

In addition to the 87-month prison term, Giltman was sentenced to 3 years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit assets seized when arrested in 2020.

Giltman pleaded guilty to his involvement in this long-running and large-scale Internet-based investor fraud scheme in January 2022.

In July 2021, the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division and the Securities and Exchange Commission warned investors that fraudsters were impersonating registered investment professionals such as brokers and advisers.

The FBI's alert followed a similar fraud warning issued by FINRA about scams involving phishing sites that impersonate brokers and falsified SEC or FINRA registration documents.