A man who cooked the books for a $670 million insurance industry scam
pleaded guilty Monday to charges he helped mislead thousands of
investors worldwide.
Jorge Luis Castillo, 56, Hackettstown, N.J., entered pleas in U.S.
District Court to conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud in U.S.
District Court. He is scheduled for sentencing May 22 and could receive
up to 20 years in prison and fined up to $250,000.
Castillo, who originally was scheduled for trial in 2012, will assist
the government's prosecution of Minor Vargas Calvo, 60, the president
and majority owner of Provident Capital Indemnity Ltd., a Costa Rican
company. He is scheduled for trial in February. He has pleaded not
guilty to similar charges.
The government called Castillo a "gatekeeper" for Provident. As a
certified public accountant, he cast himself as an "outside auditor" and
falsely reported a rosy financial picture for the company, which had a
global client base.
"This is truly an international fraud in scope," U.S. Attorney Neil H.
MacBride said in a conference call after Castillo entered his plea. "As a
result of Mr. Castillo's crimes, a lot of people lost life savings to
life settlement companies because of the worthless guarantees that Mr.
Castillo helped create.
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