| Subject: | Re: [RESOGUIT-L] Boze Update as of 5/14/07 - watch for sentencing letter | | Date: | Tuesday, May 15, 2007 16:57:39 (-0700) | | From: | Betty Wheeler <bettywheeler @.....com>
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On 5/15/07, Your #1 Pal <dobro23@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> What exactly was the scam again?
Here's a quick summary, based on the legal documents filed in this case:
From around 2002-2004, Raymond Boze, using the name "Matt Roe," engaged in a
scheme to defraud money and property from quite a few people (with the dobro
community being his target) by means of false and fraudulent pretenses. (If
I recall correctly, more than 70 people were identified who suffered losses;
I'm not sure how many of those people filed their losses with the federal
investigators.) His scheme included creating websites, including
www.resonatorguitarist.com, offering various items for sale, including a
nonexistent "Resonator Guitarist" magazine; claiming to be a luthier and
getting people to make payments for custom-made resonator guitars;
fraudulently soliciting business loans in exchange for custom-built guitars;
and holding workshops (some of these actually did occur, and helped
establish credibility for him; the people who actually taught the workshops
were absolutely uninvolved in his criminal conduct and completely unaware of
it until all of us became aware of it). Since this fairly complex scheme
used U.S. Mail and other interstate carriers (e.g., FedEx, UPS) as well as
PayPal, it falls within the federal crime of mail fraud, and is a felony.
As I indicated, his target was the dobro community, and he scammed scores of
people for amounts of money ranging from the relatively small (e.g., a
magazine subscription) to the relatively large -- the $5,000-$7,000 range.
He used a variety of techniques that kept people from realizing the criminal
nature of his conduct for quite some time, and once this was all uncovered,
he left Texas, which was his base for all of this, and went to the Portland
area, where he was arrested in September '06. He has been in federal custody
since then, and was originally set for a trial date on May 21, but recently
agreed to enter a guilty plea, so that hearing is what is set for Wednesday
(tomorrow), with sentencing to follow in several months.
--Betty
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