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Guy Who Put Decent-ish Amount Of Effort Into Facebook IPO Scam Found Guilty

A prolific scam artist, the Facebook deal represents only 50% of the cons Troy Stratos will stand trial for this year (the other being ripping off Eddie Murphy's ex-wife).
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Say what you want about Troy Stratos, but the man put elbow grease into his hustle, which included coming up with a (n admittedly fake sounding) fake name1, reading the Wikipedia entry for Carlos Slim-- who served as an essential piece of the scam--, and continuing to swindle people via his associates from inside a prison cell.

Stratos, 49, was found guilty of four counts of wire fraud and two of money laundering. Stratos told investors he was helping Mexican telecom billionaire Carlos Slim buy a large stake in Mark Zuckerberg’s social network, according to prosecutors. The shares the investors purportedly were buying were left over from the Slim purchase, according to Stratos — who operated the scam under the name Ken Dennis. Stratos claimed the shares were allocated to “Soumaya Securities,” a phony investment company given a touch of authenticity by being named after Slim’s late wife...Stratos will be back in a courtroom later this year to face charges that he swindled Nicole Murphy out of $8 million by promising to handle her financial affairs following her divorce from Eddie Murphy...The Facebook transaction fell apart in late 2011, when Stratos was arrested for defrauding Murphy. Even then, according to court documents, he tried keep his Facebook deal alive from jail by having friends on the outside negotiate on his behalf.

Con man convicted in Facebook stock fraud [NYP]

1. Ken Dennis, really?↩

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