Man charged with defrauding investors

A former resident of Chicago was recently charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of filing false income tax returns in U.S. District Court. Randy M. Cho was charged with stealing nearly $8 million from 50 clients who believed they were taking part in a lucrative stock-buying deal. The suit alleges that, instead of purchasing shares with the funds, Cho used them for personal gain. Cho claimed to have relationships with well-known investment firms, including Goldman Sachs, which he said allowed him to gain access to stocks at lower-than-normal prices. In one swindle, Cho told an investor that he could purchase stock in Google for just $1 a share, even though it was publicly traded at $425, and eventually gave the alleged fraudster approximately $20,000. In addition to Google, Cho claimed to have connections with companies such as Rosetta Stone and Facebook before they went public. Instances of fraud have sprung up all over the United States. The Lewiston Sun Journal reports that Dawn Cummings Solomon confessed to bilking the state of Maine's healthcare organization out of $4 million.