Two self-proclaimed stock-picking experts who persuaded consumers on late-night infomercials to spend tens of thousands of dollars on software and other products to play the market were convicted of fraud and conspiracy in federal court Thursday.
Linda Woolf, 49, of Sandy, Utah, and David Gengler, 35, of Draper, Utah, passed themselves off as successful stock traders. In reality, Woolf lost money in the market while Gengler at best made a nominal profit, according to tax records.
They sold wares offered by a company called Teach Me to Trade. Sometimes, customers paid as much as $30,000 for the stock-picking system and software.
Although playing the market wasn’t profitable for the pair, they did make millions of dollars in commissions by traveling to hotel seminars across the country and selling Teach Me to Trade products.
Prosecutors said consumers never would have purchased those products if Woolf and Gengler h ad not portrayed themselves as successful investors.
In a monthlong trial in U.S. District Court, defense attorneys acknowledged that Woolf and Gengler occasionally misspoke or embellished in their sales pitches, but said the two were being held to an impossibly high standard, especially because the law distinguishes between fraud and “puffery” or sales talk.
“What has happened here is the government has criminalized the sale of legal products,” Woolf’s lawyer, Mark Schamel, said in a phone interview after the verdicts. “Every person in America involved in sales has to have a serious concern when they get up and go to work.”
Gengler’s lawyer, Christina Sarchio, said the verdict “has a chilling effect on salespeople everywhere” and said Gengler is reviewing all his options to get the conviction overturned.
The jury deliberated for only about three hours before convicting the two on all seven counts – one conspiracy count and three counts each of wire f raud. The government dropped eight other fraud charges midway through the trial.
Sentencing has been set for July 31. U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga can set aside the verdicts and dismiss the case.
Schamel declined to comment on the pending motions to dismiss or on whether he might appeal.
Gengler and Woolf worked as independent contractors for Teach Me to Trade, which is a division of publicly traded Whitney Information network in Cape Coral, Fla.
It is unclear whether the convictions might result in other charges against Whitney or companies that put on similar seminars. Government agents said during trial that the investigation of Whitney is ongoing.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Andreson said after the verdict that “this is an unregulated nationwide industry that targets unsuspecting members of the community. Its financial impact is devastating and it warrants continued federal prosecution.”
While Whitney has not been charged, the indictment against Woolf and Gengler said that the two relied on Whitney’s “fraudulent marketing efforts” in their scheme to defraud.
Review: Director Bong Joon Ho’s “Mickey 17” Starring Robert Pattinson
So you think YOUR job is bad?
Sorry if we seem to be lacking empathy here. But however crummy you think your 9-5 routine is, it'll never be as bad as Robert Pattinson's in Bong Joon Ho's "Mickey 17" — nor will any job, on Earth or any planet, approach this level of misery.
Mickey, you see, is an "Expendable," and by this we don't mean he's a cast member in yet another sequel to Sylvester Stallone's tired band of mercenaries ("Expend17ables"?). No, even worse! He's literally expendable, in that his job description requires that he die, over and over, in the worst possible ways, only to be "reprinted" once again as the next Mickey.
And from here stems the good news, besides the excellent Pattinson, whom we hope got hazard pay, about Bong's hotly anticipated follow-up to "Parasite." There's creativity to spare, and much of it surrounds the ways he finds for his lead character to expire — again and again.
The bad news, besides, well, all the death, is that much of this film devolves into narrative chaos, bloat and excess. In so many ways, the always inventive Bong just doesn't know where to stop. It hardly seems a surprise that the sci-fi novel, by Edward Ashton, he's adapting here is called "Mickey7" — Bong decided to add 10 more Mickeys.
The first act, though, is crackling. We begin with Mickey lying alone at the bottom of a crevasse, having barely survived a fall. It is the year 2058, and he's part of a colonizing expedition from Earth to a far-off planet. He's surely about to die. In fact, the outcome is so expected that his friend Timo (Steven Yeun), staring down the crevasse, asks casually: "Haven't you died yet?"
How did Mickey get here? We flash back to Earth, where Mickey and Timo ran afoul of a villainous loan... Read More