By MARK TODD - Staff Writer - mtodd@starbeacon.com
A former Ashtabula-area man and his son are facing federal mail fraud charges, stemming in part from a failed film venture, according to the FBI.
A federal grand jury last week returned an indictment against Thomas K. Fink, 61, and Thomas C. Fink, 35, who moved to Las Vegas in 2005, said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.
Thomas K. Fink faces eight counts of mail fraud, while Thomas C. Fink has been charged with 10 counts of mail fraud, according to the statement.
The indictment alleges the pair mailed quarterly statements to investment clients, indicating their accounts had gained value, when in fact Thomas C. Fink had diverted the money to finance a motion picture, “Who’s Your Monkey” and for his own use, Dettelbach said in the statement.
Some 25 investors, including the Finks’ family and friends, lost an estimated $4.5 million, he said.
The indictment alleges that in July 2005, Thomas K. Fink, who at the time was an investment adviser with AXA Advisors in Ashtabula, left the state to open two businesses with his son, Thomas C., in Las Vegas. The defendants asked relatives, friends and AXA clients to transfer their investments to the new businesses, according to the statement.
Father and son promised a “conservative investment model,” but instead Thomas C. Fink “looted the client accounts” for the film, as well as personal use, Dettelbach said in the statement.
For a three-year period, starting July 2005, the defendants sent several bogus quarterly reports to clients. In early 2008, mailings were sent that informed clients their accounts had “increased in value,” according to the statement.
In July 2008, another statement sent by the defendants said they were “still working on the calculations” for the previous quarter and expected results soon. The indictment alleges that client money already had been diverted when the 2008 statements were mailed.
Last year, the Star Beacon reported the Ashtabula County Prosecutor’s Office was investigating allegations that Thomas K. Fink had swindled clients out of more than $2 million.
Before heading to Las Vegas, Thomas K. Fink operated a business in North Kingsville for 20 years, the newspaper reported. Thomas K. Fink relocated from Las Vegas to Arizona when authorities began making inquiries.
Efforts to locate either Fink for comment were unsuccessful.
Dettelbach, in the statement, said the father stopped working with his son in July 2008. In October that year, another mailing went out to clients, which said “client account information was inaccessible due to an ongoing audit,” when in fact there was no audit since Thomas C. Fink already had diverted client funds, according to the statement.
“It is important, especially during these difficult financial times, to protect the public from financial crimes,” Dettelbach said in the statement. “This case represents our continued commitment to protecting the rights of investors and policing the financial markets.”
The 2007 film appeared in limited release in theaters and was released on DVD one year later, according to the Internet Movie Data Base.
FBI in Painesville and the Cleveland Postal Inspection Service investigated the case, according to the statement.
