SYRACUSE, NEW YORK -Bruce Kane, 61, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, an accountant and former resident of Ithaca, New York, pled guilty today in Federal Court in Syracuse, New York, to an indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, announced United States Attorney Richard S. Hartunian and FBI Special Agent In Charge Andrew W. Vale. Kane faces a maximum term of imprisonment of twenty years, a maximum fine of $250,000, an order of restitution in the amount of over $10 million and a forfeiture money judgment of over $10 million. Sentencing is scheduled for October 7, 2016 in Binghamton, New York.
Kane is a certified public accountant who was the managing partner for Global Financial Fund 8, LLP, a company that solicited and received over $10 million from investors located throughout the United States, including residents of the Northern District of New York. As part of his guilty plea, Kane admitted that he misappropriated approximately $1.5 million of the investors $10 million for his own personal use and enjoyment. Kane admitted to using investor funds to buy a $59,000 boat, using more than $280,000 for his own credit card payments, and to using the funds to rent a waterfront condominium in Florida. In an effort to avoid detection and allow him to continue to divert money for his own use, Kane helped orchestrate the payment of phony “profit" distributions to investors in 2004 and 2005, which were merely a partial return of their principal investment. Further, from 2004 to 2013 Kane repeatedly assured the investors via e-mail that their investments were secure when he knew that was not the case.
Kane is the second defendant to plead guilty in this case. On Feb. 19, 2016, Burton Greenberg, who previously pled guilty to these charges on November 9, 2015, in Federal Court in Fort Lauderdale Florida, was sentenced to 97 months imprisonment, ordered to pay restitution in the amount of over $10 million and ordered to pay a forfeiture money judgment of over $10 million.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Geoffrey Brown.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
