Scam artists prey upon people's faith. They use God's name to get people to believe. There are very few men lower on the feeding chain than a man who will use the name of God to take money from the elderly and people of faith.
Mitchell Sepaniak was CEO of Weida, Joseph Zumwalt was CFO of Weida. Mitchell Sepaniak is the guy Rufus just named as an addition to the company. Anthony Giordano was the largest shareholder of Weida. Zumwalt was suspended from duties as CFO, Sepaniak was asked to resign as CEO and from the Board of Directors. Ronald C. Bernard and Paul B. Cervellero have resigned from Weida's board of directors, effective immediately.
EPG LIMITED PARTNERS, WEIDA COMMUNICATIONS, Anthony F. Giordano, Joseph Y. Zumwalt – Fake hedge fund operator gets 10 year sentence. According to the SEC's lawsuit allegations, Giordano and Zumwalt's first scheme victimized several investors, including two nonprofit organizations, who lost millions of dollars in a purported hedge fund, EPG Limited Partners, Ltd. Giordano and Zumwalt are allegedly responsible for numerous material misrepresentations and omissions to investors concerning the use of their funds and EPG's purported assets and returns. Giordano and Zumwalt are also alleged to have diverted substantial amounts of investor funds for undisclosed purposes, including personal use. Giordano and Zumwalt's second scheme involved market manipulation of the common stock of Weida Communications, Inc., a publicly-traded company. Giordano and Zumwalt are alleged to have manipulated the market price for Weida common stock to approximately $5 per share, in part to facilitate the sale of Weida stock in private transactions at approximately $3 per share. Hundreds of investors, many elderly and unsophisticated, allegedly paid millions of dollars for Weida common stock at these inflated prices between June 2004 and April 2005. The SEC suspended trading in Weida securities on April 25, 2005. On a criminal conviction the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida sentenced Anthony F. Giordano to a federal prison term of 120 months and ordered that he pay criminal restitution in the amount of $5.5 million. Giordano, a securities law recidivist living in Boca Raton, Florida, was convicted after pleading guilty to violations of the federal securities and wire fraud laws. Joseph Y. Zumwalt, is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to violations of the mail fraud laws in connection with his role in the hedge fund fraud. The SEC filed parallel civil fraud charges against both individuals in the same district court.