Medizone Intl. (fka MZEIQ)

[Tane61]

B'KLYN MAN BILKED FIRM, DA CHARGES

A Brooklyn man with a rich passion for escort services has been charged with stealing more than $500,000 from a medical research firm that he directed, prosecutors said yesterday. Joseph Latino, 41, was accused of diverting the funds from Medizone International Inc., a California-based firm researching ozone therapy as a possible treatment for blood diseases like AIDS and hepatitis. Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said Latino took the money between 1994 and 1997 when he was Medizone's CEO and director of research spending more than $100,000 on escorts over three years. Morgenthau said Latino spent the money on personal expenses, including trips with his family to Italy and visits from $450-an-hour escorts. Prosecutors said Latino lied to investors in Manhattan and elsewhere, telling them that experiments had been completed for Medizone in Italy when they never were started. Morgenthau said Latino, who was initially hired to run Medizone after serving as a consultant to the firm, also falsely said he had a Ph.D. in biochemistry. Morgenthau said the scam fell apart last summer when a new board of directors, investigating financial irregularities, discovered the scope of the problem and reported them. After being arraigned on charges of grand larceny, securities fraud and falsifying business records, Latino was given until next Wednesday to surrender his passport and raise bail, a $50,000 bond or $25,000 cash.

http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/b-klyn-man-bilked-firm-da-charges-article-1.817597