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Press Release

Florida Man Sentenced To 37 Months In Prison For $433,000 Fraud

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of California

SAN FRANCISCO – Yesterday, Leigh Farrington Fiske was sentenced to 37 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution for a fraud scheme he perpetrated against small business owners and others seeking lines of credit around the nation, announced United States Attorney Melinda Haag, Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program Christy Romero, and FBI Special Agent in Charge David J. Johnson.

Fiske pleaded guilty on June 11, 2014. According to the Plea Agreement, Fiske and his partner, Michael Ramdat, operated a business referred to as “Corporate Funding Solutions.” The purported purpose of this business was to obtain credit lines for customers in exchange for a fee. Fiske’s role was to solicit customers, which he generally did over the Internet and by word of mouth. In reality, neither Fiske nor Ramdat ever intended to provide any services to their customers. Instead, they accepted approximately $433,000 from approximately 30 victims and never helped any of these victims obtain credit. Fiske admitted that he kept $102,000 of these payments for himself, and that he passed the remainder on to Ramdat.

Fiske, 51, of Tampa, Fla., was indicted by a federal grand jury on Nov. 21, 2013, on five counts of wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343, and one count of conspiracy, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1349. Fiske pleaded guilty to all of the wire fraud counts.  Pursuant to the Plea Agreement, the government dismissed the conspiracy charge at sentencing.

The sentence was handed down by the Honorable Edward M. Chen, United States District Court Judge. Judge Chen also sentenced the defendant to a three year period of supervised release and restitution. The defendant will begin serving the sentence on March 31, 2015. Ramdat is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 17, 2014 before Judge Chen.

Benjamin Kingsley is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case, with the assistance of Mary Mallory and Jessica Meegan. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program and the FBI.

Updated December 12, 2014