Two Florida Men Sentenced In Six Million Dollar Investment Fraud

DENVER – Joseph Anthony Rubbo, age 54, of Oakland Park, Florida, and Nicholas D. Rubbo, age 48, of Coral Springs, Florida pled guilty on May 9, 2018, to conspiring to commit mail fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering announced U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer, the Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge Calvin Shivers, and the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Steven Osborne.  U.S. District Court Judge R. Brooke Jackson accepted the guilty pleas, sentenced Joseph Rubbo to the maximum term of imprisonment available under the law, 60 months, and sentenced Nicholas Rubbo to 48 months imprisonment.
 
According to court documents, including the stipulated facts contained in the defendants’ amended plea agreements, from December 2012 to November 2017, Joseph Rubbo and Nicholas Rubbo, along with three others, engaged in a conspiracy to defraud more than thirty investors, including two investors in Colorado, of more than $6,000,000 in an investment fraud scheme.  The investment fraud scheme focused on a television production company based in South Florida, VIP Television, LLC, as well as a cleaning product, the “Scrubbieglove,” which was also patented in Florida.  Investors sent money to both of these companies as a result of false statements about VIP Television’s merger opportunities and interest in the Scrubbieglove by entities such as QVC, Walgreens, and Bed, Bath & Beyond.
 
Three other members of the conspiracy, Angela Monaco, Pasquale Rubbo, and Steven Dykes, are defendants in a related case pending before the United States District Court for the District of Colorado in Case No. 17-cr-417-RBJ.  Monaco, Pasquale Rubbo, and Dykes have all pleaded guilty and will be sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge R. Brooke Jackson in August 2018.   
 
The case was investigated by the FBI and IRS-CI. The defendants are being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Hetal J. Doshi and Matthew T. Kirsch.