Trial begins for two men charged in international investment scam

The trial of two men charged in a multimillion-dollar investment scheme hatched in Switzerland got underway Tuesday in federal court.

Anthony Brandel of Las Vegas and James Warras of Wisconsin are facing conspiracy, wire fraud and securities fraud charges. They were named with four other defendants in a 24-count federal indictment returned in Las Vegas in December 2013.

One defendant pleaded guilty last week, another is in custody in Canada awaiting extradition and two others who live in Switzerland are still at large.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you're about to hear a fraud case that was both brazen and simple," prosecutor Brian Young told the jury in his opening statement. "The defendants simply took the money and ran off with it."

Young, a trial attorney with the Justice Department's Fraud Section in Washington, said investors were lured by promises of astronomical returns into contributing between $100,000 and $1.2 million to a phony Swiss company called the Malom Group.

Securities & Exchange Commission court filings allege the Malom Group, an acronym for "make a lot of money," bilked 30 investors out of more than $11 million between 2009 and 2011.

The victims in the criminal case lost more than $5 million, Young said.

Brandel ran M.Y. Consultants, a Nevada company that promoted investment opportunities with the Malom Group, and Warras was an officer of the Swiss company, Young said.

The conspirators deceived investors with false bank statements that showed Malom Group had hundreds of millions of dollars in European banks, and then tried to cover up their misdeeds after the investors became wise to the scheme, Young said.

Assistant Federal Public Defender Raquel Lazo offered jurors a different view of the case in her opening statement on behalf of Warras.

"This case is about two Swiss scammers who duped a laundry list of individuals," Lazo said.

She included Warras as among those hoodwinked by the two fugitive co-defendants — Martin Schlaepfer, Malom's chief executive, and Hans-Jurg Lips, the company's financial chief.

Warras believed the Malom Group was a legitimate company and did not knowingly participate in the scheme, Lazo said.

Prosecutors planned to call several victims to the witness stand during the trial, which is expected to continue into next week in the courtroom of Senior U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson.

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