the checks represented profits from their investments. However, in many cases the checks were simply drawn from the principal investments made by the investor. On other occasions, Boles funded checks written to one investor with money received from other investors. Boles believed that telling the investors that the checks represented earnings on their investments would encourage them to invest more money.

Boles also set up a website which he occasionally used to deceive investors by posting fictitious figures showing investments to be profitable when they were not, again to encourage investors to invest more money.

This law enforcement action is part of President Barack Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. President Obama established the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort to investigateand prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch, and with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes.

The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay S. Weimer.