A Canadian investment banker has pleaded guilty to an international stock scheme prosecutors say involved a $90 million fraud linked to a financier and television show impresario considered to be Germany’s Jim Cramer.
Myron Gushlak, who lives in the Cayman Islands, invested in European stock funds alongside Markus Frick, an investment whiz and financial adviser whose show, “Make Money,” was broadcast on Germany’s N24 TV network.
New Yorkers were among those defrauded, attorneys said, after making investments in ventures that included a Russian energy firm exploring for oil reserves in Siberia. Some of the funds were held in private Swiss accounts.
“We’re talking about how he ripped off investors in a pump and dump scheme,” Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis said, after noting that Gushlak has failed to fully accept responsibility for his actions.
News of Gushlak’s guilty plea to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to launder money charges emerged Wednesday during a hearing in Brooklyn federal court.
Because he has been cooperating with federal and state investigators, along with regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission, information about his guilty pleas had been kept under seal by judicial order and much of the case is still secret.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel A. Spector told the court that Gushlak “by his own admission, obtained $86 million from the fraud” and “admitted that he laundered funds [that]…exceeded $10 million.”
His defense lawyers argued that although Gushlak’s actions in Europe are under investigation by German authorities in Berlin, he has not been convicted there of any crimes.
The financier maintains a website filled with investment tips and contains his blog musings about many subjects, including the pitfalls of money manager Bernie Madoff.
Gushlak’s defense attorneys said one of his legitimate ventures was a $1 million investment in the online firm eMusic in 2000, which sold two years later for $100 million.