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by Mike Caswell

Gregory Curry, a Canadian arrested along with Toronto's Sandy Winick in 2013 for helping defraud investors in an advance fee scheme, has pleaded guilty. New York prosecutors claimed that Mr. Curry, 69, helped run call centres that swindled thousands of investors around the world. The call centres allegedly targeted those who had bought shares in prior pump-and-dumps run by Mr. Winick, trying to victimize them a second time.

Mr. Curry entered the plea in a brief court appearance on May 29, 2015. He withdrew his prior plea of not guilty and entered a plea of guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which has a maximum sentence of 20 years. The judge did not set a sentencing date, and Mr. Curry remains in jail.

The plea comes as Mr. Winick is preparing for trial, which is set to begin on Sept. 21, 2015. Prosecutors claim that he was the mastermind of a $140-million scheme that allegedly defrauded penny stock investors in 35 countries. (All figures are in U.S. dollars.) He and others ran pump-and-dumps with 11 pink sheets and OTC Bulletin Board listings, selling tens of millions of shares while the companies issued false and misleading news releases, according to prosecutors. They then victimized investors a second time with an advance fee scheme, offering them a premium for worthless penny stock shares, the government claims.

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