{"id":136162,"date":"2023-01-19T09:40:57","date_gmt":"2023-01-19T14:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=136162"},"modified":"2023-01-19T09:40:57","modified_gmt":"2023-01-19T14:40:57","slug":"fake-twice-wounded-sf-iraq-vet-pleads-guilty-to-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=136162","title":{"rendered":"Fake Twice Wounded SF Iraq Vet Pleads Guilty to Fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Costello.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-136163\" src=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Costello-300x181.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"181\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Costello-300x181.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Costello-500x301.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Costello.jpg 753w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Justin Costello claims he was in Special Forces and a veteran of Iraq.\u00a0 He also claimed he was wounded twice.\u00a0 In addition, he claimed he was a billionaire from the cannabis industry.<\/p>\n<p>This ruse all came to an end when he pled guilty to fraud.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2023\/01\/18\/fake-billionaire-justin-costello-pleads-guilty-in-fraud.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Fake cannabis billionaire Justin Costello pleads guilty in $35 million fraud, with recommended prison term of 10 years<\/strong><\/a><br \/>\nWED, JAN 18 | DAN MANGAN<\/p>\n<p><strong>KEY POINTS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>* Justin Costello, who posed as a billionaire and twice-wounded Special Forces Iraq vet to dupe investors while portraying himself as a legal cannabis mogul, pleaded guilty to securities fraud.<\/p>\n<p>* Prosecutors in federal court in Seattle agreed to recommend a sentence of 10 years in prison for Costello, according to a plea agreement he signed with them.<\/p>\n<p>* Costello\u2019s guilty plea came three months after the 42-year-old was apprehended in southern California by an FBI SWAT team.<\/p>\n<p>* He had failed to surrender days earlier to face an indictment accusing him of a $35 million fraud.<\/p>\n<p>Justin Costello, who posed as a billionaire and twice-wounded Special Forces Iraq veteran to dupe investors while portraying himself as a legal cannabis mogul, pleaded guilty Wednesday to securities fraud.<\/p>\n<p>Under a plea agreement with Costello, prosecutors will recommend a sentence of 10 years in prison, with Costello echoing that call and being barred from asking for less time than that.<\/p>\n<p>Costello also agreed to pay victims of his frauds \u2014 which related to cannabis firms, a would-be bank, and stock pump-and-dumps \u2014 not less than $35 million in restitution.<\/p>\n<p>Costello\u2019s guilty plea in federal court in Seattle came three months after an FBI SWAT team apprehended the 42-year-old in a remote area of southern California, carrying a backpack containing gold bars, $70,000 in U.S. and Mexican currency, and a fake ID.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>While it is nice knowing Costello was caught and is going to pay the price, it is another case of it seeming like it has more to do with the money than the embellished military service.  Whatever works, I guess.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Justin Costello claims he was in Special Forces and a veteran of Iraq.\u00a0 He also claimed &hellip; <a title=\"Fake Twice Wounded SF Iraq Vet Pleads Guilty to Fraud\" class=\"hm-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=136162\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Fake Twice Wounded SF Iraq Vet Pleads Guilty to Fraud<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":663,"featured_media":136163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-purple-heart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/663"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=136162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/136163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=136162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=136162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=136162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}