Five members of Rockland family sentenced for phony ‘gold mine’ investment schemes

WHITE PLAINS – a Rockland County family of five, from New City, has been sentenced on charges relating to their participation over more than 15 years in a phony “gold mine” investment scheme and other Internet wholesaler schemes.

Sentenced were James and Rita Russo and their adult children, Elizabeth, Rudolfo and Thomas Russo. They all pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and to wire fraud and were each sentenced to six years in federal prison.

According to court documents, from September 1987 through September 2005, the Russos operated several different schemes to defraud including by creating a fraudulent investment scheme involving an alleged gold mining operation in Brazil. The family induced their victims, from the US and Europe, to give them over $2 million over 18 years by making a number of false and fraudulent misrepresentations, creating fake documents, and promising their victims they would receive a percentage of the proceeds when the alleged gold mine was eventually sold.

They were also involved in a number of money-laundering techniques to conceal their fraud proceeds.