Robert Shapiro, the former chief executive of Woodbridge Group of Cos., received the maximum sentence of 25 years in prison for running a $1.3-billion fraud that caused more than 7,000 retirees and other investors to lose money, reports Bloomberg.

Shapiro lured investors with promises of returns as high as 10 percent from investments in loans to property developers. Instead, he used money from new investors to repay earlier ones and used $36 million to buy luxury homes, wines, paintings and custom jewelry for his wife, according to Bloomberg’s Bob Van Voris.

“Prosecutors said Shapiro moved money through a network of 270 limited liability companies that he controlled. Investors lost $450 million, according to the government,” Van Voris writes.

Read the Bloomberg article.

The Innoxcell Annual Symposium – The US -Asia Cross Border White Collar Crime Series will be on Dec. 6, 2016, in New York at the Warwick New York Hotel.

Complimentary passes are available for General Counsel, Corporate Compliance, Head of Audit, Head of M&A, IP and Head of Risk. Contact Jeffrey Teh at Jeffrey.teh@innoxcell.net for more information on passes.

The Innoxcell Annual Symposium (IAS) is the world’s largest and most comprehensive white-collar crime and regulatory compliance conference, focusing on cross-border business legal relations between the US and Asia.

In 2016, the Innoxcell Annual Symposium (IAS) has been held in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Australia, the United Kingdom and now, the United States. This is the only event of its kind, featuring multiple streams covering the great diversity of cross-border issues, including:

• US – Asia eDiscovery judiciary panel
• US-China anti-corruption best practices
• Financial Crime Compliance
• Employee Misconducts
• China outbound investment and merger review best practices
• Cross-border fraud investigation and litigation
• One belt, one road – risk and legal considerations

Register for the symposium.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Dallas-based Breitling Energy Corp. and its CEO, “Frack Master” Chris Faulkner, of fraudulently spending tens of millions of dollars of investors’ money on lavish meals, expensive cars, strippers and escorts, reports Mark Curriden of The Texas Lawbook in the Houston Chronicle‘s FuelFix blog.

The SEC claims that Faulkner presided over an $80 million oil and gas fraud that included Breitling, Crude Energy, Patriot Energy  and Breitling Oil and Gas. Charges also named eight corporate executives, including Breitling Energy General Counsel Jeremy Wagers, who previously practiced law at Houston-based Vinson & Elkins and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in Houston, Curriden reports.

“Faulkner,  a frequent guest on CNBC, Fox Business News and CNN, , disseminated false and misleading offering materials, misappropriated tens of millions of dollars of investor funds and attempted to manipulate Breitling Energy’s stock, the SEC charged in a 63-page complaint filed Friday in federal court in Dallas. Faulkner was dubbed “frack master” by the media because of his advocacy of the industry, according to Breitling Energy’s web site,” according to the report.

Read the article.