Louis Cuomo, 30, Coral Springs, Florida, aka Anthony Louis Cuomo pled guilty to two separate conspiracies to commit mail and wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §1349. Sentencing has been scheduled for January 28, 2009.

As previously reported by Mortgage Fraud Blog, and according to the charging document in this case and statements made during the plea, Cuomo helped operate various foreign exchange companies. He used brokers, called “introducing brokers,” to solicit and handle orders for the purchase and sale of foreign currency option contracts. The introducing brokers for foreign currency option contracts operated under the names Standard FX, Superior FX, Superior 4X, and Hamilton Edwards, and were located in Coral Springs and Plantation, Florida. Employees of these companies called prospective clients and falsely promised them high returns on their investments if they invested in options to purchase Euros. In these sales pitches, the sales teams minimized or entirely failed to disclose large up-front commissions, the companies’ poor performance history, and made other material misrepresentations and factual omissions. As a result of these misrepresentations, 75 clients suffered approximately $2.5 million in investment losses.

Louis Cuomo also engaged in mortgage fraud, involving the fraudulent purchase of homes through nominee owners. These nominee owners provided false financial information to the mortgage lender to secure the loans. A significant portion of the loan proceeds were wrongfully diverted to the conspirators.

Louis Cuomo also pled guilty to conspiracy to sell fraudulent securities to the public. In this second conspiracy, Louis Cuomo sold securities of Hema Diagnostics Systems, a privately held company in Miami-Dade County, FL, without knowledge or permission from the company, by making fictitious promotional literature for Hema Diagnostics Systems. Louis Cuomo and the other conspirators kept the investors’ monies for their own use and investors did not receive any stock in Hema Diagnostics.

R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida commended the investigative efforts of the United States Secret Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Coral Springs Police Department and the Broward Sheriff’s Office for investigating this case. The case is being handled by Assistant United States Attorneys Steve Petri, Harry Wallace and Jeffrey Kaplan.