Mario Turcotte

An analysis of Operation 'Bermuda Short', including which defendants were convicted or acquitted and length of sentences. These defendants were Serdar Kalaycioglu, Martin Chambers, Anthony Damato, Kevan Garner, Walter Dorow, Bruce Bertman, Michael Reiter, Geoffrey Gazda, James Cary Parrish, Jeffrey Senger, Melvin Levine, Jerry Poole, Charles Cini, Lawrence Gallo, Bruce Cowen, Daniel Charboneau, Thomas Steinbach, Gordon Novak, Harold Joliffe, Howard Kerbel, Greg Balk, Barry Berman, Vincent Barone, Dax Ross, David Rich, George Doumanis, Michael Puorro, Blair Valentine, Ray Hutchison, Frank Dickey Jr., Daniel Bender, Paul Lemmon, Bruce Biddick, John Purdy, Ronaldo Horvat, Mark Valentine, Joseph Huard Jr., Cris Sagnelli, Michael Vlahovic, Douglas Rasberry, Richard Greene, Tim Rice, Ashley Sosner, Andrew Proctor, Marshall Klein, Mario Turcotte, Sheldon Mickelson, Richard Carson, Dennis Epstein, Kenneth Liebscher, Michael Hepburn, Charles Arnold, Les Price, James Kelly, Justyn Feldman, Robert Wilder, and Paul deRome.

The U. S. Government is seeking to seize the alleged proceeds of narcotics trafficking that are held in accounts at Barclays Bank, in London, England in the name of British Virgin Islands-registered Auxerre Corporation; St. Kitts and Nevis-based Crowne Gold Inc., which is secretly controlled by offshore provider Terry Neal, has been slammed by an Ontario, Canada-based client for allegedly not assisting in the recovery of nearly US$6,000 that the client claims was defrauded from his account by a third-party; U. S.-based Spherion Corporation, which specializes in staffing, recruiting and workforce management, filed a civil complaint against the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism at federal court in the USA on January 29, 2004. Three former insiders of a now-defunct, Grenada-licensed offshore bank have each received non-custodial sentences for their participation in an investment fraud; Meanwhile, two other former insiders with another Grenada-licensed offshore bank, Robert John Skirving and Paul James Peiffer, both of Oregon, have suffered setbacks in their attempts to have their debts wiped out via bankruptcy; Investors who lost millions of dollars in the failed Bahamas-registered Oracle Fund have reached a settlement with the Fund's administrator, reported the Bahama Journal on January 23, 2004; The number of foreign-owned legal entities registered in Bermuda fell by 2.5 per cent from 13,870 to 13,528 during 2003, according to figures recently released by the Registrar of Companies; For a company that claims to manage so much money - more than $2.5 billion - Bermuda-based Orbis Investment Management Ltd. has surprisingly little transparency; A company in which St. Vincent and the Grenadines-licensed offshore bank Omnicorp Bank invested was named as a defendant in a civil lawsuit filed by the SEC at the U. S. District Court for the District of Utah on February 23, 2004; and A participant in an offshore-oriented scam perpetrated by an organization doing business as the Global Prosperity Group or the Institute of Global Prosperity has pleaded guilty to tax evasion in the United States.

Former Canadian Space Agency engineer Serdar Kalaycioglu has been found guilty of fraud involving an offshore bank and a bogus mutual fund following a jury trial in the United States that spanned seven weeks. After 21 days of hearing testimony and four days of deliberations, the jury found 40-year-old Kalaycioglu guilty of 11 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Three ex-offshore bankers who were criminally indicted in 'Operation Bermuda Short' in 2002 have each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.They are Sheldon Mickelson, 44, a former plumber of West Palm Beach, Florida; Mario Turcotte, 49, of Canada; and Richard Carson, of Westmount, Quebec, Canada, who helped to operate Meridian Investment Bank Ltd., a now-defunct bank once licensed in the crime-ridden Caribbean island of Grenada.

Superseding Indictment in USA vs. Serdar Kalaycioglu, Mario Turcotte, Richard Carson, and Sheldon Mickelson at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Bahamas accountant Michael M. Hepburn, who has been arrested and charged with money laundering in Miami, has a history of involvement with crooked companies, OffshoreAlert can reveal. Hepburn, 54, has provided fake audits for several offshore insurers that have collapsed amid heavy losses and allegations of impropriety, including Paramount Reinsurance Ltd., formerly First Reinsurance Ltd., of Barbados; and Alpine Assurance Ltd. and Savoy Reinsurance Co. Ltd., both of the Turks & Caicos Islands.

Fifty-eight people have been criminally indicted in the United States following a two-year undercover investigation into white-collar crime. As of lunch-time today, 53 of those indicted had been arrested, including Bahamas-based accountant Michael Hepburn, who helps to operate Barbados-licensed Keywest Swiss Investment Bank.

A civil complaint has been filed in the United States against a now defunct Grenada licensed offshore bank and its principals by a client seeking the recovery of $6 million. In an action brought at the Circuit Court for the

A civil fraud lawsuit has been filed in Florida against a former plumber who is a principal of Grenada-registered Meridian Investment Bank. Sheldon Mickelson was named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed at the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit of Florida for Broward County on June 12, 2001. Plaintiffs Atul Bisaria and Deventra Sharma claim that Mickelson and two co-defendants, Mario C. Turcotte and Arthur Godin, defrauded them in a land deal.