Defrauded Victims Include Novelist Tom Clancy

July 14, 2000

Baltimore - Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr., announced today that Richard Scott, 54, of Alexandria, Virginia, was sentenced in Prince George’s County Circuit Court today to 11 years in prison, all but 18 months suspended and to be served in the form of home detention. Scott was fined $20,000, all but $10,000 suspended. Mr. Scott is gravely ill due to the ravages of diabetes, liver and kidney failure, congestive heart failure and poor circulation.

The sentence follows guilty pleas by Scott and co-defendant, Edward Pereira, to charges of conspiracy to misappropriate and securities fraud. Scott and Pereira were partners with Jeffrey Goodman in the ownership of Goldies Coin & Stamp Center in Camp Springs, Maryland. Pereira was sentenced to six months in the PG Co. Detention Center and fined $3500. Goodman’s sentence was suspended to probation.

The three were on trial for allegedly defrauding 25 investors out of approximately $3 million. The money was supposed to be invested in one or two investment accounts operated by the Defendants, but instead was wasted on more speculative ventures, personal and business expenses, and gambling at casinos in Atlantic City, Las Vegas and in Prince George’s County. Goodman pleaded guilty on the first day of the trial last month.

"After learning from Maryland investors about the Goldies operation we immediately acted to shut them down," Attorney General Curran said. "Unfortunately, by the time Goldies went into bankruptcy, it had less than $100,000 in coin and stamp inventory and stock holdings of less than $400,000."

The Defendants defrauded over 100 investors out of over $8 million between 1990 and 1995. However, in order to make the criminal case more manageable, only 25 representative victims were chosen for indictment purposes.

Curran says the victims, all of whom are Maryland or Virginia residents including best-selling novelist Tom Clancy, were induced to invest with Goldies by promises of outstanding profits to be gleaned from safe, certain investments. The first investment opportunity, known as the "Fifteen Per Cent Account", supposedly involved the buying and selling of rare coin estates at a guaranteed return of 15 percent. The second investment, known as the "Stock Account", supposedly involved buying and selling rapidly appreciating stocks with a promised return of more than 15 percent.

Instead of purchasing the stock, the Defendants used some of the money to pay back other investors and the rest of the money went for personal uses and to purchase highly speculative stocks that lost money. To satisfy investors, they sent them grossly exaggerated reports of their supposed profits, which further induced victims to invest more money and recruit their friends, neighbors and relatives.

The case was investigated by the Maryland State Police and the Attorney General’s Criminal Investigations Division.

Source: http://www.oag.state.md.us/Press/2000/071400.htm