Duo on Trial for Advance Fee Fraud Hear CFO of Chicago RE Firm Talk of Stolen Fees and Bogus Website

Duo on Trial for Advance Fee Fraud Hear CFO of Chicago RE Firm Talk of Stolen Fees and Bogus Website by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack SDNY COURTHOUSE, June 11 – 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. 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