A fugitive charged with an audacious $35 million fraud — in which he allegedly told investors he was a hedge fund billionaire, a Harvard MBA and a special forces veteran who had been twice wounded in Iraq — was arrested by an FBI SWAT team in California after days on the lam, authorities said Wednesday.
Las Vegas resident Justin Costello, 42, is accused by federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission of swindling thousands of investors and others as part of a complex scam that touted his purported efforts to build a cannabis conglomerate, among other things.
One of his companies, Pacific Banking Corp., provided banking services to three marijuana companies. Authorities said he also used it to divert at least $3.6 million to himself and other firms he owned.
They also say that he engaged in a scheme that cost more than 7,500 investors about $25 million by making false claims about plans by one of his own companies to purchase 10 other firms.
Another 29 investors lost $6 million after investing directly with Costello based on his false representations, prosecutors said.
Costello, who also had a residence in La Jolla, Calif., used about $42,000 of investors’ money for costs associated with his wedding to Katrina Rosseini, prosecutors said.
A video of that wedding reviewed by CNBC shows both a cake and an ice sculpture boasting the James Bond movie logo of the numbers “007” over a semi-automatic pistol and a belly-dancing…
