Date: 2007-06-05
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Published by: FBI
Baltimore, Maryland - Myrle Conley Grose, Jr., age 40, of Ridgeley, West Virginia, pleaded guilty today to mail fraud related to a scheme in which he made false representations to induce friends, relatives, customers and other individuals to give him loans or money to invest, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.
(Media-Newswire.com) - Baltimore, Maryland - Myrle Conley Grose, Jr., age 40, of Ridgeley, West Virginia, pleaded guilty today to mail fraud related to a scheme in which he made false representations to induce friends, relatives, customers and other individuals to give him loans or money to invest, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.
According to his guilty plea, from September 2000 through October 14, 2004, Grose, a licensed stockbroker, convinced individuals living in Maryland and West Virginia to invest or loan him money, promising those individuals a guaranteed rate of return. Instead, Grose used the funds to pay his personal expenses, and for gambling and high risk investments. Grose also used the funds to make monthly payments to previous victims of the scheme who insisted on repayment and/or threatened to report Grose’s activities, claiming that the payments were interest or a return on their investment. Grose prepared fictitious account statements, which he mailed to the victims in order to continue the fraud. Grose allegedly obtained over $1,229,000 from 24 victims through this scheme.
Grose faces a maximum sentence for mail fraud of 20 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release. As part of the plea agreement, Grose has agreed to pay $1,079,958.91 in restitution, the amount remaining after previous payments to the victims are credited, and to serve 46 months in prison, minus time already served. U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett has scheduled sentencing for August 16, 2007 at 2:00 p.m.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Combined County Criminal Investigation of Allegany County for their investigative work and thanked Allegany County State’s Attorney Michael Twigg for his assistance. Mr. Rosenstein commended Assistants U.S. Attorney Tamera L. Fine and Sandra Wilkinson, who are prosecuting the case.