Police & Public Safety

Folsom Man Arrested in High Yield Investment Fraud Scheme
Release Date February 28, 2008

Sacramento, CA: Steve K. Wilson, aka Stefan Andre Wilson, age 44, was arrested yesterday evening without incident at his home located at 730 Glen Mady Way, Folsom, California, on charges related to a fraudulent high yield investment program. Drew Parenti, Special Agent in Charge of the Sacramento FBI and Scott O’Briant, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation, announced the arrest.

According to allegations contained in the affidavit in support of the complaint, Wilson managed a hedge fund operating under the names Christians in Crisis Investment Fund, Shake the Nations and Opus Capital Holdings. Wilson solicited individuals to invest in what he described as a high risk hedge fund which, based on the investment agreement, promised investors a 2% monthly return (24% annual return) on their investment. The agreement also gave the investors the ability to withdraw earnings or after one year, the investor could ask for the return of their principal.

Investigators determined that Wilson maintained two financial accounts associated with Christians in Crisis (CIC). Investor contributions were deposited into a Washington Mutual (WaMu) account in the name of CIC Investment Fund. A portion of the money was then transferred into an Ameritrade brokerage account in the name of CIC International. An analysis of these two accounts demonstrates that the CIC Investment Fund operated as a Ponzi scheme.

During the period of March 2006 through July 2007, approximately $9 million was deposited into the WaMu account. These deposits were in the form of personal checks, cashier’s checks and wire transfers from various investors and were payable to CIC Investment Fund. Approximately $6.4 million was transferred from the WaMu account to the Ameritrade account where Steve Wilson engaged in day trading in the stock market. The Ameritrade brokerage account sustained approximately $5.1 million in trading losses. Of the roughly $3.85 million of remaining money in the WaMu account, Wilson withdrew at least $1.1 million for personal expenses and disbursed approximately $2.06 million to investors as capital appreciation or earnings. These payments were not the result of earnings and appear to be lulling payments to investors so as not to arouse suspicion. The capital appreciation or earnings payments were made with new investor’s money.

On February 15, 2008, Special Agents with the FBI and the IRS Criminal Investigation executed search and seizure warrants on Wilson’s home and business. A lis pendens has been filed against Wilson’s residence and items seized pursuant to the seizure warrant included a 2007 Porsche Cayman, a 2006 Sea Ray vessel, a brokerage account and a bank account.

Wilson was booked into custody last night and will make his initial appearance in federal court today at 2:00 p.m. in Sacramento, California.

Dexter McNamara Receives FBI Community Leadership Award
Release Date February 23, 2008

Sacramento, CA: The Sacramento FBI announced February 25, 2008 that Dexter McNamara is the recipient of the 2007 FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award. The award, given annually, recognizes the achievements of individuals or organizations in the area of drug and violence education and prevention. Mr. McNamara, for the past 13 years, has been the Director of the Interfaith Service Bureau (ISB), an organization dedicated to addressing human needs in the community and fostering greater understanding, acceptance and cooperation among people of different faiths.

The ISB, incorporated in 1920 as the Federation of Churches, eventually became known as the Interfaith Service Bureau in 1978. During his 13 years as Director, Mr. McNamara has seen the religious community in Sacramento grow and change considerably bringing with it the challenges of ministering to the diverse needs of people in the Capital City. Some of the ways the ISB has helped people of different religious backgrounds discover the common call of faith to work for justice, mercy and compassion include: bringing faith groups together to foster understanding and trust; working together to feed, clothe, and house people; providing faith and values programming on the Religious Coalition for Cable Television channel; helping lead local disaster preparedness and response efforts; and working with various programs to help children, youth and families.

Drew Parenti, Special Agent in Charge of the Sacramento FBI, said “Dexter McNamara was the first person from the religious community to call and welcome me to Sacramento and he has been a guiding hand for me during my tenure here. He has played an integral role in making our community safer for everyone and has opened many doors for the FBI helping us effectively communicate with the various inter-faith communities in Sacramento. He has been a great partner to the FBI and the work he does is more important now than it ever has been”.

The ISB also works in conjunction with many other programs in the community including: Opening Doors; Building Unity; Habitat for Humanity: the Capital Unity Council; the Child Abuse Prevention Council; WEAVE; the Healthy Marriage Project; California Interfaith Power & Light; and the U.S. Attorney General’s Violence Prevention Task Force.

Dexter McNamara said “It gives me great hope when I see people from many different religious and ethnic/cultural backgrounds and from many different agencies and organizations working together to create a safe, just, healthy and compassionate community.” The presentation of the award was February 27, 2008.