Mary Dowdell

Nine people have been indicted for fraud in the United States regarding an investment scheme that was perpetrated through a Bahamas shell company. The indictment was brought at the U. S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia on February 28, 2007 against Shinder Singh Gangar, 45, a United Kingdom national residing in England; Alan White, 48, a U.K. national residing in England; Birgit Mechlenburg, a.k.a. Gitte Mechlenburg, a resident of Massachusetts; Kenneth Mason, a U. S. national residing in Chicago, Illinois; Michael Hardesty, a U. S. national residing in Utah; Mark Smyth, a U. S. national residing in California; Gregory Smyth, 56, a U. S. national residing in California; Mary Dowdell, 49, a U. S. national residing in Charlottesville, Virginia and wife of Terry L. Dowdell, who is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to related fraud charges in June, 2004; and Rebecca Dowdell, 30, the daughter of Terry Dowdell and a U. S. national residing in Charlottesville, Virginia.

A business associate of the now-closed Overseas Development Bank & Trust Ltd., of Dominica, has pleaded guilty to 20 felony charges, including securities fraud, money laundering and wire fraud.The charges relate to a multi-million dollar fraudulent trading program that Terry L. Dowdell operated through his Bahamas-registered firm, Vavasseur Corporation, starting in 1998.