A 51-year-old Whitefish man who convinced investors to give him between $100,000 and $1 million for a fraudulent company whose name stood for “Make a Lot of Money” was sentenced to 87 months in prison on Sept. 15 in U.S. District Court in Nevada.
Sean Finn was indicted in 2013 and fled to Canada, where he was arrested a year later before being extradited to the United States in 2018. In February, he was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud, four counts of wire fraud, and four counts of securities fraud. In addition to his prison term, Finn was ordered by Judge Kent J. Dawson to pay more than $6 million in restitution and to forfeit $830,000.
At his trial, prosecutors showed Finn and his co-conspirators recruited investors for a Swiss company known as Malom (Make a Lot of Money) Group AG, claiming that for a large up-front payment the company would provide investment opportunities and significant cash loans. To convince potential victims, Finn and his co-conspirators provided fabricated documents overstating Malom’s financial worth and transaction history. When funds were secured, the money was wired into an escrow account and distributed to Finn and others for their personal use. Total losses from the scheme amounted to more than $3.8 million dollars, according to prosecutors.
Finn was one of six people originally charged in connection with the scheme. Two defendants, Anthony Brandel and James Warras, were sentenced to 87 months in prison in 2016. That same year a third man, Joseph Micelli, was sentenced to 60 months. The final two alleged co-conspirators, Martin Schlaepfer and Hans-Jurg Lips, remain at large outside the United States.