Richard Maike | Photo from Daviess County Detention Center
Richard G. Maike, a 55-year-old Owensboro man, was sentenced final week to 10 years in prison for operating a pyramid scheme in 2013 and 2014. He was additionally ordered to pay a $100,000 fantastic.
Co-defendant Doyce G. Barnes, a 73-year-old man from Goldsboro, North Carolina, was sentenced to 4 years in prison for his position in the pyramid scheme.
The defendants have been convicted after a 3-month federal jury trial that concluded with a conviction in September after 4 hours of deliberation.
According to court docket paperwork and proof offered at trial, Maike and Barnes offered positions in Infinity 2 Global, or I2G — purportedly a multi-level advertising and marketing firm — which the United States proved at trial was working as a pyramid scheme.
Maike and Barnes have been additionally convicted of conspiracy to commit securities fraud in reference to the sale of $5,000 Emperor positions in the corporate as a type of passive revenue.
Maike was additionally convicted of cash laundering and tax evasion in connection along with his use of roughly $3.2 million in I2G funds, a few of which have been wired to and from an Infinity 2 Global checking account in Hong Kong and utilized by Maike to buy 1800 acres of ranch land in Kansas for his private use.
The proof at trial confirmed that in roughly 15 months, I2G offered almost 5,000 of the $5,000 Emperor positions producing, together with different lower-priced positions, over $30 million in income, a lot of which went out in the type of commissions to the promoters on the high of the pyramid construction. Commissions have been generated based mostly on recruitment of latest members into the corporate. Over 90% of the individuals who purchased a membership in I2G misplaced cash.
Maike and Barnes have been every additionally ordered to serve a 3-year time period of supervised launch after being launched from prison. There isn’t any parole in the federal system.
Both Maike and Barnes will likely be ordered to pay restitution to the victims of their crime. A restitution listening to will likely be held at 10 a.m. February 2 in the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky in Owensboro. Victims wishing to submit a restitution declare who haven’t carried out so already ought to electronic mail the U.S. Attorney’s Office at [email protected]
One co-defendant, Faraday Hosseinipour, additionally convicted at trial, is scheduled for sentencing earlier than a United States District Judge of the Western District of Kentucky in Owensboro on January 5. Another co-defendant, Richard Anzalone, beforehand entered a plea of responsible to the conspiracy to commit securities fraud and testified at trial. Anzalone’s costs have been dismissed after he died in October of 2022. Two different co-defendants, Dennis Dvorin and Jason Syn, have been severed for trial to be held at a later date. No trial date has been set for Dvorin and Syn.
The FBI and the IRS Criminal Investigation investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Madison Sewell and Marisa Ford are prosecuting the case with the help of paralegal Cristy Crocket. Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Sullivan is dealing with the asset forfeiture elements of the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Bravo is dealing with the restitution elements of the case.
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