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U.S. Attorneys » Western District of Washington » News
Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Western District of Washington
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, September 29, 2022
Former Washington state resident indicted for defrauding investors and marijuana businesses
Lied about background, education, military service and stole from marijuana businesses through an entity allegedly providing them banking services
Seattle – A 42-year-old Las Vegas man, who previously lived in Bellevue, Washington, is facing a 25-count indictment charging him with wire fraud and securities fraud, announced U.S. Attorney Nick Brown. Justin Costello allegedly victimized marijuana business owners, private investors and investors who purchased stock over-the-counter. The Securities and Exchange Commission also filed a civil suit against Costello today.
“Mr. Costello allegedly told many tall tales to convince victims to invest millions of dollars -- money he then used for his own benefit,” said U.S. Attorney Nick Brown. “In a complex scheme involving shell companies, penny stocks, and financial services for marijuana businesses, Mr. Costello used Twitter, press releases, securities filings, and claims of great wealth to paint a picture of fabulous financial success. In truth that picture was a mirage.”
According to the indictment, in 2017 Costello owned and operated a company called Pacific Banking Corp that provided banking services to marijuana businesses in Washington, Colorado, California, Illinois, and Alaska. Between 2019 and 2021, Costello allegedly diverted money from three marijuana business to benefit himself and his companies. The diversions were contrary to the promises he had made to the marijuana businesses. The three marijuana businesses lost about $3.7 million.
As part of his scheme, Costello purchased two companies that were trading for pennies on the over-the-counter market and renamed them GRN Holding Corporation and Hempstract Inc. Costello also recruited investors in these companies, allegedly making numerous false statements about the size and success of his marijuana banking business. Costello told potential private investors several falsehoods – that he had an MBA from Harvard, that he had served in the military and had done two tours in Iraq and had been wounded twice, that he was a billionaire, that he had 14 years of experience on Wall Street and that GRN Funds LLC, a private equity and hedge fund he owned, had over $1 billion in assets under management. None of that is true.
With these falsehoods, Costello convinced various investors across the country to invest in his companies. One deceived couple provided Costello with more than $2 million for shares in companies that he controlled. Additionally, they opened a $4 million TD Ameritrade account at Costello’s direction and provided him with the passwords that allowed him to trade in their account. Costello allegedly used the account to purchase the penny stock of companies he controlled driving up the share price to enrich himself.
Costello used the same lies with other investors and allegedly used investor funds for his own expenses. For example, Costello used at least $42,000 of investor money for personal expenses include costs associated with his wedding. In all, some 29 investors invested directly with Costello and lost $6 million because they relied on Costello’s false representations.
In 2019, Costello’s entity GRN Funds, LLC purchased the outstanding shares of Discovery Gold Corp., changing the name to GRN Holding Corp. In SEC filings about the purchase Costello lied repeatedly about his background, education, and the financial success of the LLC. In various filings with the SEC, and in press releases, Costello lied about GRN Holding Corp’s possible acquisition of other companies and revenue – causing the share price to increase. From December 2019 and into January and February 2020, Costello directed others to issue ten press releases about acquiring other companies. None of the acquisitions occurred even though Costello controlled these other companies. Between July 2019 and May 2021, 7,500 investors lost about $25 million after purchasing and selling GRN Holding Corp stock.
Finally, between October 2019, and January 2021, Costello hired an unindicted coconspirator to use Twitter in a pump and dump stock scheme. Costello would acquire the penny stock of a company and then instruct his prolific Twitter user to tweet falsehoods about the company that would drive up the stock price. The coconspirator would tweet about the stock as often as 90 times a day. In one instance Costello didn’t just use Twitter, he also instructed some of his “investors” to purchase stock in the company, driving the share price from a nickel to $2 per share. After driving the share price up, Costello sold the shares for a profit of more than $355,000. The prolific Twitter user was given a share of Costello’s profits from the pump and dump scheme. In all Costello made $576,466 in the pump and dump scheme.
The charges contained in the indictment are only allegations. A person is presumed innocent unless and until he or she is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and fine of $250,000 or twice the gain the Costello or the loss to the victims of his offenses. Securities Fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $5,000,000 fine.
The case was investigated by the FBI. If you have information, or believe you were a victim in this fraud, please email: CostelloFraud@fbi.gov.
The SEC conducted their own separate investigation.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Justin Arnold and Michael Dion.
costello_indictment.pdf
Attachment(s):
https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/press-release/file/1539266/download
https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/former-washington-state-resident-indicted-defrauding-investors-and-marijuana-businesses
samsamsamiam
2 years ago
SEC Charges Man for Defrauding Investors out of Millions of Dollars by Posing as Hedge Fund Billionaire
Defendant presented himself as a special forces veteran and Harvard grad to gain investor trust
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2022-178
Washington D.C., Sept. 29, 2022 —
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Justin Costello for using a false persona, as a Harvard-educated military veteran and hedge fund billionaire, to defraud investors out of millions of dollars. The SEC also charged Costello and David Ferraro, an associate of Costello’s, for promoting the stock of several microcap companies on social media without disclosing their own simultaneous stock sales as market prices rose.
According to the SEC’s complaint, Costello portrayed himself to the public as a seasoned, licensed investment professional who was building a conglomerate in the cannabis industry. His alleged false representations included credentials as a Harvard MBA, experience managing a $1.15 billion hedge fund, and years of experience on Wall Street. As alleged in the complaint, Costello used these fabricated accomplishments to secure approximately $900,000 of investments in two different companies from more than 30 investors. As further alleged in the complaint, while acting as an investment adviser to a married couple, Costello sold the couple $1.8 million of shares in a penny stock at a markup of 9,000 percent over the price paid by Costello and used their $4 million brokerage account to trade, at a significant loss, securities of microcap companies in which Costello had an undisclosed financial interest.
The complaint also alleges that Costello and Ferraro engaged in various stock promotion schemes in which Costello acquired shares of penny stocks and then directed Ferraro to promote those stocks to Ferraro’s Twitter followers and the public. The complaint alleges that Ferraro posted hundreds of tweets to hype those stocks and did not disclose that Costello intended to sell his shares once the stock price increased or that Ferraro would receive a share of Costello’s profits. Through these alleged schemes, Costello and Ferraro together made approximately $792,000 in illicit trading profits.
“As we allege in the complaint, Costello brazenly used fictitious accomplishments to win over investors and directed numerous manipulative stock promotion campaigns,” said Sheldon L. Pollock, Associate Regional Director of the New York Regional Office. “This case highlights our ongoing efforts to protect investors from fraudsters posing as investment professionals and to safeguard the markets from social media schemes and other online fraud.”
The SEC’s complaint, filed in the Western District of Washington, charges Costello and Ferraro with violating the anti-fraud provisions of the federal securities laws. The complaint seeks permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement with prejudgment interest, and civil penalties. The SEC also seeks penny stock bars against Costello and Ferraro and an officer and director bar against Costello. In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington today announced criminal charges against Costello.
The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Jordan Baker, Samuel Kalar, and Tian Wen with assistance from Stanley Husband. It was supervised by Celeste Chase and Mr. Pollock, of the New York Regional Office. The litigation will be led by Pascale Guerrier of the New York Regional Office and Mr. Kalar and Ms. Wen. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy (OIEA) encourages investors to use the free resources on Investor.gov to check the background of anyone selling or offering investments.
https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2022/comp-pr2022-178.pdf
https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2022-178
02opida
3 years ago
In collaboration with an affiliated large scale extractor, the company completed the extraction of 36,821 pounds of raw hemp resulting in 4,050 pounds of product. With this extraction, the Company's products will include: CBD tinctures, concentrated CBD pills, as well as extracted materials and other goods. The Company is forecasting vertical revenues relating to tolling agreements at $15,624,050.
uber darthium
3 years ago
“To the people who are thinking about investing or may already have. I urge you and warn you to go as far away from this scam as you can. I met this poor excuse of a man in September of 2018. He was charming, he was smart and he seemed to have everything Together… by June 2019 one of my closest clients and friends had invested a large sum of money and slowly after that family and friends were investing into this ‘business’. He was great at making it seem like it was no big deal that they were investing and it was going to be a huge payout for them in the long run but had to stick it out for at least a year. He was all about long term and only having people on board that were not ‘narrow minded’ thinkers. BUT, he was never able to follow through on anything he ever promised to anyone. Fast forward to November 2019, we found out we were pregnant. The first person he wanted to call were the Meckley’s. Considering we were very close with them. I eventually moved out in March of 2020 and we agreed to co parent since the relationship was no longer working. He came to me on multiple occasions talking about how he had an idea to get people talking about his business but he was going to fake having Covid and/or an illness. I strongly disagreed with it but he said that he knew what he was doing and it was going to work. I still have no idea what his end goal was.. it was pretty embarrassing to watch but I was 8 months pregnant and had no desire to insert myself at that point. As of now, he has yet to acknowledge that he has a child, he tells people, like his wife that my child is not his, When he knows damn well. I have photos of him with the first sonogram, at the gender reveal and on our baby moon. He’s a disgusting human being that no one should ever trust with their hard earned money. He has yet to be a grown man and take some responsibility for the life he Help create. Let alone tell people how to invest large sums of money that they worked hard for. My immediate family, close friends and clients of mine have all invested and have all lost money due to this con artist. Do not make the same mistake and trust blindly the way I did.”
Jeannette Igtanloc
@Igtan1Igtanloc
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