There were 800 victims, many elderly, harmed by an alleged fraud scheme that spanned the United States and Canada, costing victims $100 million. Five people from A&O Resource Management, Ltd., pleaded guilty and were sentenced in a Virginia court.
"The impact of this massive fraud on many of A&O's investor victims has been disastrous," said U.S. Attorney MacBride. "Hundreds of elderly investors invested their life savings with A&O and saw it all vanish in an instant. These investors were not looking for quick cash, just a safe alternative to invest their retirement funds. The safety, security, and no-risk nature of the investment was critical to the sales pitch, and it was all a big fat lie."
"Brent Oncale and his co-conspirators operated a sham investment company that turned fraud and deceit into a business model," said Assistant Attorney General Breuer.
A&O allegedly marketed life settlement products and terms that did not exist to investors. They supposedly painted a picture that exaggerated the actual size and safety of A&O. When regulators became suspicious, principals reportedly falsely sold the company to throw state regulators off in their investigation.
The investigation was conducted by the Virginia Financial and Securities Fraud Task Force, a partnership between criminal investigators and civil regulators to investigate and prosecute complex financial fraud cases around the nation. The task force is an investigative arm of the President's Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, an interagency national task force.
