Stoney Creek man wanted in suspected penny stock fraud arrested in Thailand
A Canadian man accused of masterminding an international penny stock fraud scheme that swindled investors out of more than $140 million has been arrested in Thailand.
The FBI says 55-year-old Sandy Winick, formerly of Stoney Creek, was arrested over the weekend.
Thai newspaper Bangkok Post reports that he was arrested in an apartment in the city and is awaiting extradition to the U.S.
Winnick, according to U.S. law enforcement documents, frequently bragged on wiretaps that authorities would never be able to catch up with him.
Winick is one of four Canadians the FBI says were involved in a massive "pump and dump" scheme that generated more than $120 million in investments by tens of thousands of people in the United States, Canada and 33 other countries.
One of the Canadians was previously arrested in Ontario and another one was arrested in the U.S., along with five other American suspects.
Gregory Curry, 63, is also wanted in the alleged scheme.
In a filing to the U.S. District Court (Eastern District of New York), prosecutor Loretta Lynch wrote that Winick and his associates wove "an intricate web of schemes to abuse the security markets, hide their thefts and then re-victimize investors" with additional schemes.
"When it comes to the defendants' character, the breadth and duration of this scheme, which victimized people for more than a decade, speaks for itself…[T]he defendants can be truthfully described as living this crime, which defines their character."
A week before the fraud indictments in the U.S., Winick was convicted of securities fraud in Ontario for his involvement with two corporations with connections to Stoney Creek.
A neighbour, who asked not to be named, said Winick hadn't been seen in the area "for years."
Winnick was one of six people that launched The Fight Network cable channel in 2005. He left the channel in 2007.
With files from CBC News, The Associated Press and The Canadian Press