Defendant in stock-fraud scheme extradited to Las Vegas

After fighting extradition from London for nearly five years, a key defendant in a massive stock-fraud case involving a Nevada-based diamond mining company has been brought back to face federal charges.

John M. Edwards was arrested in London a couple of weeks before the unsealing of a 2009 federal indictment against him and several others in a scheme to defraud tens of thousands of investors across the country by selling unregistered shares of stock in CMKM Diamonds.

The scheme took in $70 million, federal prosecutors alleged in a 2010 indictment.

Edwards, 71, a Las Vegas resident who was an English citizen at the time of his arrest, pleaded not guilty Friday in federal court in Las Vegas. He was ordered to remain in federal custody as his long-awaited trial approaches.

He and five other defendants are to stand trial before U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey on Jan. 6.

Two of the 10 defendants charged in the 2010 indictment, including Urban Casavant, the former chief executive officer of CMKM Diamonds, have died. One defendant has pleaded guilty and another is still at large and believed to be out of the country.

Casavant, 57, died a fugitive Feb. 14 in Canada, according to authorities. He also had been fighting extradition.

An IRS agent described the massive nature of the stock fraud in a related criminal complaint.

“Although CMKM Diamonds purported to be a diamond mining company, the company did not actually engage in any substantial mining activities, nor any economically viable business of any kind,” the agent wrote. “In reality CMKM Diamonds was a publicly traded corporate shell used to perpetuate a massive pump-and-dump securities fraud scheme.”

As part of the scheme, company officials issued more than 700 billion unregistered shares of CMKM stock, the agent wrote.

Contact reporter Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135. Follow him on Twitter @JGermanRJ.