California man steals $50 million using fake investment sites, gets 7 years

A California man, Allen Giltman, was sentenced to 87 months in prison for his role in a long-running internet-based investor fraud that used over 150 spoofed financial websites and paid search ads to impersonate FINRA broker-dealers and steal approximately $50 million from about 70 victims between 2012 and 2020; the scheme relied on social-engineering tactics (spoofed sites, impersonation, VPNs, prepaid phones, encrypted apps, fake invoices) to launder funds internationally.