|
Texas Securities Fraud - The Hayes Law Firm
By Eric Torbenson
|
|
(November 16, 2009 - Monday) - Chief U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater sentenced Joseph Kelly Lara, 41, to 240 months of federal time after Lara pleaded guilty earlier this year to a variety of securities charges. Lara admitted adopting the alias Nick DeAngelis Mancuso and doctoring fake degrees to help scam customers and institutions out of more than $1 million, with most of his victims in North Texas.
A co-conspirator, Brett Leslie Clark, 35, of Phoenix, will be sentenced Monday. From December 2003 to January 2005, Lara used office space in Irving for his fake firm, Atlantic Equity and Investments LLC.
He was also ordered to pay back more than $1 million in losses and penalties. Lara, using the fake identity of Nick Mancuso, became a pastor at Oasis Church in Lewisville and defrauded members of that church, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney James Jacks.
|
