Sentencing for a Stevenson Ranch man named by federal prosecutors in a wide-reaching penny-stock fraud scheme that cost investors $27 million has been postponed a third time since admitting in court to committing wire fraud as his part in the scam.
Gregory Evan Goldstein, 44, appeared Oct. 6, 2015, before U.S. Magistrate Judge George J. Limbert in United States District Court Northern District of Ohio Eastern Division, where he pleaded guilty to wire fraud, court records show.
After admitting to the wire fraud, Goldstein was released from custody after posting a $20,000 bond.
He was originally scheduled to be sentenced in January but had that date bumped to March.
In March, Goldstein was ordered to return to court on Sept. 16, but that date has now been reset for Dec. 15, a spokesman for the US Department of Justice said.
“Pursuant to agreement of the parties, the sentencing is reset for Dec. 15, 2016, at 10 a.m. in courtroom 351 before Judge Benita Y. Pearson,” spokesman Michael Tobin told The Signal Wednesday.
Sentencing for wire fraud could be as much as 20 years in prison.
U.S. Attorney Steven M. Dettelbach signed a 28-page criminal information document against Goldstein on Sept. 9, 2015, in Ohio. Initial charges also included conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud.
Charged the same day in the alleged conspiracy was Jason M. Cope, 42, of Ohio.
“Although the charges allege a sophisticated ‘penny stock’ scheme, there was nothing small-scale about this,” Dettelback said in a news release on Cope’s arrest.
“The defendants in this case, through trickery and manipulation, made millions and millions of dollars on the backs of innocent investors.”
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