Two Men Sentenced in $30M Foreign Exchange Fraud Scheme

A Massachusetts man and a Florida man were sentenced for their roles in perpetrating a foreign exchange trading scheme to steal $30 million from their investor victims.

Patrick Gallagher, 45, of Middleborough, Massachusetts, was sentenced to five years in prison on Feb. 21 and Michael Dion, 50, of Orlando, Florida, was sentenced to four years and seven months in prison today.

According to court documents, Gallagher and Dion devised a scheme in which they would solicit victims to invest in their foreign exchange company, Global Forex Management, by promising them large returns based on previous trading results that they had fabricated. They told the victims that their funds would be traded using an online trading platform provided by a co-conspirator’s company, IB Capital. Instead, Gallagher and Dion were working with other co-conspirators in the Netherlands to steal the victim investors’ money. In May 2012, Gallagher and Dion executed their scheme by intentionally creating losing trades for the investors and effectively stole approximately $30 million from their victims. After fabricating the massive trading loss, Gallagher and Dion routed the stolen money through shell companies they had set up all over the world.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Inspector in Charge Eric Shen of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s (USPIS) Criminal Investigations Group made the announcement.

The USPIS investigated the case.

Trial Attorneys Vasanth Sridharan, Tian Huang, and Brittain Shaw of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted the case.

The Fraud Section uses the Victim Notification System (VNS) to provide victims with case information and updates related to this case. Individuals or entities who believe they may be a victim in this case should contact the Fraud Section’s Victim Assistance Unit by calling the Victim Assistance phone line at 1-888-549-3945 or by emailing victimassistance.fraud@usdoj.gov.