Boca Raton Man Pleads Guilty to “Ponzi” Scheme

Jeffrey H. Sloman, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Michael J. Folmar, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami Field Office, and J. Thomas Cardwell, Commissioner, State of Florida’s Office of Financial Regulation, announced that defendant William Kirschner, 63, of Boca Raton, FL, pled guilty today to mail fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C.§ 1341, before the U.S. Magistrate Judge James M. Hopkins. The defendant had been charged in a one-count Information filed on August 25, 2009. The defendant was ordered detained pre-trial. Sentencing has been scheduled for November 6, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. before U.S. District Judge Kenneth L. Ryskamp.

As set forth in the Information and the written proffer filed with his plea agreement, in or about November 2006, Kirschner incorporated a company named Brini Trading Group, Inc., which he operated out of his residence in Boca Raton, Florida. Kirschner told friends and other potential investors that they would make between 3 percent and 7 percent per month as a return on their investment, mostly through Brini Trading. In all, Kirschner accepted approximately $950,000 from eleven individuals to purportedly conduct trades on their behalf.

Of these funds, however, Kirschner only traded approximately $100,000, which he ultimately lost. Kirschner spent approximately $400,000 of the monies received to support his lavish lifestyle, and used the majority of the remaining funds to make substantial “Ponzi” payments to investors, using new investment monies to make payments to other investors.

Mr. Sloman commended the investigative efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the State of Florida, Office of Financial Regulation. The case is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Carolyn Bell.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.