Dirty money: the sad resolution of an advanced fee credit card scam
I bought a home almost a year ago that was owned by a real estate agent with whom I have become aquainted. He was telling me at the time about a multi-million dollar mansion located in southern Utah that he had just picked up as a listing, and he invited my wife and I to attend an open house that was scheduled that weekend. We showed up at the open house mostly out of curiousity,and what we saw absolutely astounded us. In my opinion, this home was an obcenity of over-indulgence from the 3 full gourmet kitchens and the 15 car garage (in addition to a separate 7 car garage) to the $100,000 home theatre and private jetski lake.
I inquired about the prior owner, thinking that perhaps Bill Gates or Donald Trump had built a nice little getaway or something. No, I was told, the prior owner was a young "entrepreneur" in his early 30's who had built up a company that had made millions telemarketing several advanced-fee credit cards - which, as it turns out, weren't actually credit cards at all, but was instead a scam that preyed upon people with poor credit histories. Evidently, the house was for sale because the FBI had seized the property as part of a federal prosection against the owner and his company.
His name was Kyle Kimoto, and his company was Assail, Inc. You can read about the Federal Trade Commission's case against them here.
Today, I read where the FTC has announced the final resolution of the Kimoto/Assail case with final deals against some of Kimoto's associates. The final verdict is that the associates have agreed to a total of $82 million in suspended judgements against the associates, which will be triggered if they don't meet the conditions of the settlement, along with a $1.9 million disgorgement order. But those figures don't include Kimoto or Assail, which had originally agreed to a $106 million suspended judgement.
Suspended, that is, until the court found out that Kimoto had been hiding an additional $3 million in profits that he socked away (with the help of an unscrupulous Las Vegas based Nevada incorporation company by the name of Nevada Corporate Services, and it's officers Richard Fritzler, Sr. and Richard Fritzler, II). Once that was discovered, the court entered an order to enforce the original $106 million judgment. Brilliant move, criminal.
As for Nevada Corporate Services and the Fritzlers, they avoided criminal sanctions and jail time for contempt charges by agreeing to pay a $300,000 disgorgement of profits they received for helping Kimoto try to hide his money. In other words, Nevada Corporate Services was willing to do anything - for 10%.
I am happy to report that Nevada Corporate Services is not a member of the Nevada Resident Agent Association (NRAA), of which I am the president. That is probably because the NRAA is working hard to establish an ethical environment in the Nevada incorporation and resident agent industry.
NOTE: A FEW COMMENTS HAVE BEEN MADE TO SOME OF MY BLOGS BY
Bill Johnson said 1 day ago
You guys kills me here. You are lumping Juliette in with Kyle and don't really know anything about what happened. Just because it says something on a website doesn't make it true. If someone is guilty then they are guilty, but if Keystone only had one complaint and it was 3 years ago then it was probably doing things ok. Give me a break. Blogs can do so much harm when used incorrectly and people form mini lynch mobs on people about situations they know nothing about. There are 2 sides to it all.
Bill Johnson said 1 day ago
I MUST ASK MYSELF AFTER READING VARIOUS DOCUMENTS "HOW DID JULIETTE KIMOTO NOT KNOW KYLE WAS COMMITTING FRAUD? YOU ARE LIVING IN A MULTI MILLION DOLLAR HOME. JULIETTE YOUR HOME WAS SEIZED BY THE FBI, I WOULD THINK YOU WOULD HAVE REALIZED SOMETHING WAS ROTTEN IN DENMARK. I DON'T BUY HER STORY, NOR SHOULD ANYONE ELSE. THERE IS PLENTY OF EVIDENCE THAT STATES OTHERWISE! JULIETTE KIMOTO AS A GOSPEL LOVING WOMAN SHOULD JUST FINALLY COME CLEAN ABOUT HER ACTIVITIES AND SAVE HER POOR CHILDREN EVEN MORE HEARTACHE. THATS THE CHRISTIAN THING TO DO!
About time? Careful wishing ill on other people when you don't truly know what happened here.
Julie will never have a turn and doesn't deserve one. She's a great person and a great mom and it doesn't bother to list all the good things that this family has done for people. The whole 'scam' can be debated forever as to who's fault it is. Kyle was found guilty and it is what it is at this point, but to say these people who had 160 dollars supposedly taken from them 'have their lives ruined' is ridiculous and comical. I do not condone what took place because obviously something went wrong and it may have been intentional for all I know, but we can't judge and shouldn't judge and this crap shouldn't be still going on. Let the news report on it but not some person typing whatever they want about people they've never met.
RESPONSE TO: BILL JOHNSON
TOO MANY VICTIMS OUT THERE MR. JOHNSON, WHO DEALT WITH JULIETTE. JULIETTE IS A FRAUD & SCAMMER JUST LIKE HER HUSBAND. PLEASE DON'T SPIN YOUR CRAP AS FAR AS HER NOT KNOWING. SHE LIVED THE LIFE OF A MILLIONAIRE. PLUS AFTER ALL OF KYLES ILLEGAL ISSUE'S, YOU WOULD THINK THE WOMAN WOULD ASK "WHERE'S THE MONEY STILL COMING FROM"!