Duo on Trial for Advance Fee Fraud Put on Man Who Used Middle Name & Search Manipulator

Duo on Trial for Advance Fee Fraud Put on Man Who Used Middle Name & Search Manipulator by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack SDNY COURTHOUSE, June 18 – Back in 2023 the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced his Office was charging JOSEPH MALVASIO and GREGG MARCUS, a/k/a “Gregg Pierce,” with running a years-long advance-fee scheme through which they defrauded hundreds of victims of at least approximately $12 million.  MALVASIO and MARCUS were arrested this morning will be presented later today" in SDNY.  Inner City Press covered it.   Jump cut to June 11, 2026, when both men were on trial before Judge Jesse M. Furman. On the stand was the CFO of a Chicagoland-based real estate developer which two paid appraisal fees to the men's companies and received nothing in return.  The company wanted to develop land in the Chicago suburbs, and in Vermont. They were looking, the witness said, for a hard money lender, and were taken in by the men's website claiming a development in Winston-Salem, NC. But that did not exist, nor the investment in or loans to a Utah gold mine nor in a major motion picture. Docketed on June 13 - thirteen days after it was "filed" - Malvasio's lawyer asked to preclude lay witness Joey Rosati from testifying about his own "purported practices as a hard money lender." Why the delayed docketing? On June 16, another victim, Mr. Mingus, was on the stand. On cross examination, the AUSA objected and was asked to summarize in one word. "Long winded hearsay with self-serving statements," she replied. "That's not one word," Judge Furman said. Also on June 16, belatedly docketed was a May 31 letter about the third man in the case, Christopher Polk, who pled guilty on May 20. But, the letter argues, Polk does not know Mr. Marcus. Now it seems he will not testify at all. Will he still get a 5K.1 letter? On June 18 the defense questioned a man from GCP who used his middle name as his last name on emails, establishing that not all failed applicants - from Botswana and the Philippines - were charged fees. But then the use of Search Manipulator to put up fake Google reviews came up. The trial continues. The case is USA v. Malvasio, et al., 23-cr-396 (Furman) *** Your support means a lot. As little as $5 a month helps keep us going and grants you access to exclusive bonus material on our Patreon page. Click here to become a patron. Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com Mail: Box 130222, Chinatown Station, NY NY 10013 Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.  Copyright 2006-2026 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com