A little insight into history. The prosecution says this in a footnote in a response to post-trial motions by JF's attorney for acquittal, dismissal etc:
The government initially thought the case would focus on Geoffrey Eiten, a stock promoter who had worked with Locateplus and who was the subject of the Massachusetts Securities Division’s ongoing investigation. Latorella’s and Fields’s proffer sessions, however,
coupled with documentary evidence the agents steadily uncovered, helped shift the government’s focus to events at Locateplus itself.
It seems from various court filings that in these multiple proffer sessions with the DoJ, JL & JF more-or-less admiited to everything they were eventually charged with, in substantial detail.
One of JF's attorney's arguments is that this means that JF, rather than O'Riordan, should have been offered a sweet plea deal. The prosecution scoffs at this:
During their proffers, Latorella and Fields both (eventually) admitted to perpetrating a brazen securities fraud, which in part led the government to give them closer attention. Later, the government better ascertained O’Riordan’s role and approached him as well. It soon became clear that, of these three co-conspirators, O’Riordan was the least culpable. The evidence at trial bore this out.
BTW, the DoJ so far doesn't seem to have charged poor ole Geoff Eiten with anything. The SEC has pinged him on non-LP matters (I think there might have been statute of limitations issues with suing him for LP, Paradigm etc) but that case seems pretty comatose at the moment.
