Asset Search News Roundup: June 2, 2010

By Fred Abrams on June 2, 2010

This “Asset Search News Roundup” highlights an updated tax protocol, a $40 million dollar asset recovery and the sentencing of New York securities fraudster Matthew D. Weitzman:

On May 27, 2010 the Organisation For Economic Co-Operation And Development announced that the United States and ten other countries agreed to an updated tax protocol which provides for increased cooperation in the fight against tax fraud with cross-border elements.
A U.S. Department of Justice press release explained that over $40 million dollars was recovered by asset forfeiture for injured investors in Japan who supplied funds to suspected Ponzi schemer Isamu Kuroiwa. Mr. Kuroiwa is thought to have defrauded 30,000 plus victims out of about $1 billion dollars.
As more fully set forth here, securities fraudster Matthew D. Weitzman of Armonk, N.Y. was sentenced last week to 97 months in prison. A June 10, 2009 SEC civil complaint had alleged that an injured investor in late March 2009 discovered part of the fraud and apparently confronted Mr. Weitzman about it. Page 13 of the sentencing memorandum in Mr. Weitzman’s criminal case meanwhile, emphasized that Mr. Weitzman voluntarily reported his fraud to governmental authorities in late March 2009.;