Who Else Is Serving Seven Years In Prison For Explosive Dowsing Fraud?

While not highlighted in the article below, Josh Lankford was a key player in the Sniffex stock scam as well. Though not as satisfying as the recent convictions in the UK for the direct fraud of selling bogus explosive detectors, seven years is seven years. Lankford told the court he had fled to Costa Rica out of fear and hadn't wanted to hurt people. He sold fake explosive detectors to unwitting victims and then scammed investors by artificially pumping up the stock price and cashing in. He deserves no sympathy. He should be afraid after endangering lives and robbing people of their savings.

This article should be a good reminder for anyone currently selling the Sniffex by the new name, HEDD1.

 

$44 million stock fraud conspirator sentenced to seven years in federal prison

By DAVID HARPER World Staff Writer on May 16, 2013, at 6:21 PM  

       

Joshua Wayne Lankford

 

A man who prosecutors say was “critically involved” in a stock conspiracy that defrauded as many as 17,000 people of a total of about $44 million was sentenced Thursday in Tulsa to seven years in prison.

 

Joshua Wayne Lankford, 39, fled to Costa Rica after the investigation came to light and then lied about his identity and background to avoid facing the charges against him, according to a document the prosecution filed May 1. “Specifically, Lankford claimed that he was a Costa Rican citizen — and even assumed the persona of an actual Costa Rican citizen — in a desperate attempt to avoid extradition,” U.S. Department of Justice trial attorney Andrew Warren wrote in the document.

Lankford, a Dallas resident, was one of five men indicted in Tulsa federal court in January 2009 on allegations that they plotted from 2004 through 2006 to “pump up” the stock of companies and then dump the stocks at the expense of thousands of investors.

FBI Special Agent Christina Brady testified last year that Lankford flew to Costa Rica on July 26, 2008, four days after Mark Byron Lindberg, 45, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire and securities fraud in a related case.

Lankford’s attorney, James Fatigante, said during Thursday’s hearing before U.S. District Judge James Payne that he believes it is unfair to label Lankford a “fugitive” because Lankford had not been charged when he went to Costa Rica. Lankford stayed in that country until being flown to Tulsa from San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, in the custody of U.S. marshals last May 24.

He pleaded guilty Dec. 10 to a money-laundering charge. Warren’s filing alleges that Lankford “reaped approximately $7 million” from the stock manipulation alleged in the indictment. On Thursday, Lankford told the court that he left for Costa Rica in 2008 “out of fear.” He said his “intention wasn’t to go out and hurt people.”

George David Gordon, a 51-year-old former Tulsa attorney, was found guilty in May 2010 by a Tulsa federal jury of various charges in the case and was sentenced to 15 years and eight months in prison. Jurors were told during that trial that the conspiracy featured the pumping up of stock prices through meticulously coordinated trading and misleading promotions to create an artificial market for the stocks, followed by the dumping of the stock on the market. Also Thursday, co-defendant James Reskin, 54, of Louisville was sentenced by Payne to five years of probation with 200 hours of community service. Reskin pleaded guilty in March 2010 to a conspiracy charge and to misleading investigators with the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service during a meeting in March 2008. Reskin’s attorney, Stephen Knorr, told the court Thursday that Reskin played a minimal role and was involved in only one aspect of the overall plot.