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Former GTA stock broker sentenced to 25 years in U.S. prison

alexmst

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Dec 27, 2004
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Peter Edwards
Staff Reporter

Former Toronto stock broker George Georgiou was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a Philadelphia judge on Friday for his role in an international, multi-million dollar stock scam.

Georgiou, 40, was also ordered to pay $55-million in restitution for the fraud, which involved Canada, the U.S. and the Caribbean.

The money mover, who was banned from trading stocks in Canada between 1995 and 2005, had faced a maximum sentence of 165 years after being convicted in February of conspiracy, securities fraud and wire fraud.

His trial heard that he's connected through business deals to Fercan Developments of Toronto.

Fercan owns the former Molson Brewery on Highway 400 in Barrie, which was the site of a massive marijuana grow-operation.

In Philadelphia, Georgiou was held in custody pending sentencing after he unsuccessfully argued that he should be allowed to live with a Philadelphia priest and be subject to GPS monitoring, at his own expense.

Prosecutors argued that Georgiou is connected to organized crime figures – including some in the GTA - and represents a danger to society.

Prosecutors cited threats that Georgiou made to one of their witnesses, former stock scammer Kevin Waltzer. Those threats included a statement that Waltzer should "sleep with one eye open" and that it would be easier to "get someone's legs broken" in New York than it would be in Canada.

Court heard that, at one point, Georgiou suggested a business meeting in a hot tub, so that his comments couldn't be secretly recorded. The hot tub meeting never took places and his comments were secretly recorded by police.

The prosecution argued that he illegally manipulated the stock values of four companies: Neutron Enterprises Inc., Avicena Group Inc., Northern Ethanol Inc. and Hydrogen Hybrid Technologies Inc.

http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/a...oker-sentenced-to-25-years-in-u-s-prison?bn=1
 
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