Prosecutors on Tuesday asked a California federal judge to prison without bail a current fugitive implicated of a brazen $35 million scams that included him wrongly informing financiers he was a billionaire, a Harvard MBA and an unique forces veteran who was injured two times in Iraq.
An FBI SWAT group captured the fugitive, Justin Costello, in a remote location near San Diego onOct 4. He was bring a knapsack filled with 6 one-ounce gold bars worth $12,000, U.S. currency worth $60,000, $10,000 in Mexican pesos and banking cards and checkbooks, district attorneys stated in a court filing.
Costello, 42, likewise had an invoice for a pre-paid contact number in the knapsack, in addition to a chauffeur’s license with his picture under the name “Christian Bolter,” the filing exposed.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California mentioned the knapsack’s contents and other consider the filing as it advised a judge to remand Costello to prison pending trial. Prosecutors argued he is “a serious flight risk and a danger to the community.”
They kept in mind that Costello stopped working to give up to the FBI’s San Diego workplace as he had actually concurred through his attorney onSept 29. He had actually been notified that he was set to deal with a brand-new indictment in federal court in Washington state on a variety of charges associated with plans including cent stocks, shell business and marijuana organizations.
Cash and gold bars as detailed in court filing in United States District court in San Diego in case of previous fugitive Justin Costello.
Source: United States District Court
Instead, he “became a fugitive,” district attorneys composed.
“The FBI tried to track Costello by his known cellphone numbers but were unsuccessful,” district attorneys composed. “It is believed Costello took countersurveillance measures to prevent being tracked on devices registered to those numbers.”
The FBI ultimately “was able to track Costello through location information received from the theft recovery service for the Alfa Romeo vehicle he was driving,” the filing exposed.
The SWAT group tracked that cars and truck to a remote location of El Cajon, California, where they saw him strolling using the knapsack, the filing stated.
When representatives detained him, Costello “stated he was surprised agents had found him because he turned his phone off.”
He likewise informed the representatives he had actually not given up as concurred, “because he recently had a stroke and needed to recover.”
“Costello said that he could have outrun the SWAT agents but for the stroke,” the filing stated. “Costello admitted that he was the person charged in the Indictment and encouraged agents to ‘Google’ him to read about the case,” it continued.
“Costello was likely referring to the very significant media coverage of both his criminal charges and subsequent flight from prosecution,” district attorneys composed in a footnote, which connects to CNBC’s short article about him released recently.
Prosecutors stated the FBI right after discovered that the gold in the knapsack became part of a bigger amount of gold, worth $94,000, that Costello acquired in April “using money he had stolen from a banking client.”
Investigators have actually figured out that because mid-September, the implicated stopped utilizing his just recognized individual savings account for individual expenditures, and rather was utilizing several business accounts in an obvious effort to cover his tracks online, district attorneys stated.
“The weight of the evidence” versus Costello in the pending case– where is he charged with wire scams and securities scams– “is strong and heavily documented,” they included.
Costello, who has ties to La Jolla, California, and Las Vegas, is implicated of scamming countless financiers and others out of countless dollars by making incorrect claims that business he managed had strategies to purchase 10 other companies.
He likewise is implicated of utilizing among the business, Pacific Banking Corp., to divert a minimum of $3.6 million from 3 cannabis business that were customers to benefit himself and other business he owned.
Prosecutors have actually stated that Costello utilized about $42,000 of cash supposedly scammed from financiers to spend for expenses related to his wedding event. The occasion included a cake and ice sculpture with the renowned James Bond 007 motion picture logo design, in addition to a belly-dancing efficiency by his bride-to-be.
Costello supposedly deceived financiers with his exaggerations of being a billionaire, an Ivy League graduate and an Iraq veteran, district attorneys stated. They kept in mind that none of the claims held true.
He likewise “wrongly declared that 2 ‘[l] ocal titans’ of the Seattle organization neighborhood were ‘supporting’ him,” district attorneys composed in their court filing. They did not determine those magnate by name.
Costello is because of appear in San Diego federal court onTuesday He is anticipated to quickly be moved to Washington state to deal with the indictment in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
An attorney who is representing him in civil lawsuits by among the cannabis business he is implicated of deceiving did not instantly react to an ask for remark.
Costello likewise deals with a civil claim submitted by the SEC on the exact same day that criminal charges versus him were unsealed. That match mainly tracks the claims in the criminal indictment.
