Press Release
STOCK BROKER PLEADS GUILTY TO WIRE FRAUD IN CONNECTION WITH CONVERSION OF CUSTOMER FUNDS IN BROKERAGE ACCOUNTS
March 18, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Don B. Saxon, Commissioner, Florida Department of Financial Regulation, announced today that William Pang Chien pled guilty on March 17, 2008 to wire fraud in connection with a scheme to obtain funds from the accounts of clients of Cybervest Securities, Inc.,. Cybervest was a Fort Lauderdale-based registered securities broker-dealer owned and operated by Chien. Chien faces a maximum prison sentence of five years and a fine of $250,000. Sentencing is scheduled for May 30, 2008 at 3:00 p.m. before U.S. District Court Judge Joan Lenard.
According to the Indictment, Case No. 06-20769-CR-LENARD, Chien repeatedly faxed wire transfer request forms, purportedly on behalf of certain Cybervest clients, to Cybervest's clearing firm in Dallas, Texas. Many of these forms contained forged or fraudulently acquired customer signatures, and represented that the affected client had requested that funds be wired from his/her Cybervest account to specified bank accounts at other financial institutions. In reality, no such request had been made, and the accounts to which the funds were eventually wired were accounts which Chien controlled. Chien then used the funds for his own benefit or, in some instances, to pay back earlier customers who had become aware of the scheme. In sum, Chien obtained more than $700,000 through this scheme between May 2001 and April 2002.
Mr. Acosta commended the investigative efforts of the Florida Department of Financial Services. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter B. Outerbridge.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
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