Prosecutors on Tuesday asked a California federal choose to jail without bail a latest fugitive accused of a brazen $35 million fraud that associated him falsely telling traders he was a billionaire, a Harvard MBA, and a special forces veteran who was wounded 2 times in Iraq.
An FBI SWAT crew caught the fugitive, Justin Costello, in a distant location in close proximity to San Diego on Oct. 4. He was carrying a backpack loaded with 6 a person-ounce gold bars really worth $12,000, U.S. forex value $60,000, a different $10,000 in Mexican pesos and banking cards and checkbooks, prosecutors reported in a courtroom filing.
Costello, 42, also had a receipt for a pre-paid mobile phone variety in the backpack, together with a driver’s license with his photograph and the phony identify “Christian Bolter,” the filing discovered.
The U.S. Attorney’s Workplace for the Southern District of California cited the backpack’s contents and other factors in the filing as it urged a judge to remand Costello to jail pending demo. Prosecutors argued he is “a serious flight threat and a hazard to the neighborhood.”
They pointed out that Costello unsuccessful to surrender to the FBI’s San Diego business as he experienced agreed by his lawyer on Sept. 29. He was established to experience what he experienced been knowledgeable was a new indictment in federal courtroom in Washington point out on a slew of expenses connected to schemes involving penny stocks, shell organizations, and hashish businesses.
Cash and gold bars as thorough in courtroom filing in US District court docket in San Diego in case of former fugitive Justin Costello.
Source: US District Court
As a substitute, he “turned a fugitive,” prosecutors wrote.
“The FBI tried to keep track of Costello by his known cell mobile phone numbers but were being unsuccessful,” prosecutors wrote. “It is believed Costello took countersurveillance measures to stop becoming tracked on devices registered to all those numbers.”
The FBI sooner or later “was equipped to keep track of Costello via location details acquired from the theft recovery services for the Alfa Romeo car he was driving,” the submitting unveiled.
The FBI SWAT tracked that auto to a remote region of El Cajon, California, where by they saw him going for walks about with his backpack, the submitting claimed.
When agents arrested him, Costello “said he was surprised brokers experienced observed him since he turned his cellular phone off.”
Costello also told the agents he had not surrendered as agreed “since he not too long ago experienced a stroke and required to get well.”
“Costello mentioned that he could have outrun the SWAT brokers but for the stroke,” the filing said. “Costello admitted that he was the person charged in the Indictment and encouraged brokers to ‘Google’ him to read about the case.”
“Costello was likely referring to the pretty major media protection of both equally his prison prices and
subsequent flight from prosecution,” prosecutors wrote in a footnote, which inbound links to CNBC’s report about him posted very last week.
Prosecutors mentioned the FBI shortly soon after acquired that the gold in the backpack was portion of a greater quantity of gold, value $94,000, that Costello acquired in April “working with revenue he experienced stolen from a banking customer.”
Investigators have established that due to the fact mid-September, Costello stopped working with his only identified personal financial institution account for private expenditures, and alternatively was utilizing several company accounts in an clear effort to go over his tracks on the internet, prosecutors explained.
“The weight of the evidence” in opposition to Costello in the pending scenario — where is he billed with wire fraud and securities fraud — “is solid and closely documented,” they included.
Costello, who has ties to La Jolla, California, and Las Vegas, is accused of scamming countless numbers of buyers and some others out of tens of millions of bucks by creating fake promises that providers he controlled experienced ideas to acquire 10 other corporations.
He also is accused of working with a single of his providers, Pacific Banking Corp., to divert at minimum $3.6 million from 3 marijuana corporations that were clientele to gain himself and other providers he owned.
Prosecutors have explained that Costello employed about $42,000 of funds allegedly ripped off from buyers to pay back for expenses connected with his marriage. The celebration showcased a cake and ice sculpture with the iconic James Bond “007” film brand, as effectively as a tummy-dancing general performance by his bride.
Costello allegedly duped buyers with his tall tales of currently being a billionaire, an Ivy League grad and an Iraq veteran, prosecutors claimed. They mentioned that none of the claims were being real.
He also “falsely claimed that two ‘[l]ocal titans’ of the Seattle business group had been ‘supporting’ him,” prosecutors wrote in their courtroom submitting. They did not discover people small business leaders by name.
Costello is due to surface in San Diego federal courtroom on Tuesday. He is anticipated to before long be transferred to Washington state to confront the indictment in U.S. District Court docket for the Western District of Washington.
A attorney who is representing him in civil litigation by a single of the marijuana providers he is accused of swindling did not immediately reply to a ask for for remark.
Costello also faces a civil lawsuit by the Securities and Trade Fee. The agency filed it on the exact day that felony expenses from him were being unsealed. The SEC’s accommodate mostly tracks the statements in the prison indictment versus Costello.
