Joseph Caramadre is the first two and perhaps the latter. He is accused of using the identities of terminally ill people on annuities. The annuities that he used had death benefits. These benefits allow the owner of the annuity to collect the profits or receive the initial investment if the stocks were to fall. Caramadre and other investors allegedly used these annuities to make millions of dollars. The United States Attorney General’s Office has charged Caramadre with several crimes, including “wire fraud, identity fraud, identity theft and money laundering.” If convicted, Caramadre could be sentenced to more than 100 years in prison.
See Jim Taricani, Philanthropist’s Fraud Trial to Begin Next Week, NBC, Nov. 9, 2012.
Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney at Law, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.
