The Wall Street Journal-20080116-Foreign Exchange Fraud Probe Spurs Charges
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Foreign Exchange Fraud Probe Spurs Charges
A man who pleaded guilty in a "boiler room" case more than five years ago was arrested yesterday for his role in an alleged foreign- exchange scam that took in at least $68 million, prosecutors said.
Michael Richard MacCaull, 36 years old, a principal at Razor FX, was charged with conspiracy to commit fraud, according to an affidavit unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn. He faces as long as 20 years in prison if convicted. A lawyer for Mr. MacCaull had no comment.
Mr. MacCaull was sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2002 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud, mail fraud and wire fraud in connection with a $200 million fraud at Sterling Foster & Co., a defunct Melville, N.Y., penny-stock brokerage.
In the foreign-exchange case, prosecutors allege that Mr. MacCaull and his unidentified partner engaged in a conspiracy to defraud investors in Razor FX, a financial-services firm that held itself out as being in the business of trading in the spot foreign-exchange market. Razor FX, which Mr. MacCaull and a partner founded in 2000, had offices at various times in Great Neck, N.Y., and Upper Saddle River, N.J.
Mr. MacCaull's involvement in the company was concealed from many outside parties because he was barred from the securities industry as part of his prior conviction, according to an affidavit prepared by a postal inspector in the case.
