Ed Laborio is on the run from justice!
August 2, 2014|By Brett Clarkson, Sun Sentinel
After getting nailed in an FBI sting, convicted fraudster Edward Laborio should've been in prison in February.
But the Boca Raton man asked to delay his surrender in Miami so he could face separate fraud charges in Boston in May. A federal judge said OK.
Now Laborio has gone AWOL.
The 35-year-old officially went on the lam on May 27, when he failed to appear before a federal judge in Boston, court records state.
"I can tell you that Mr. Laborio remains a fugitive," Christina DiIorio-Sterling, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston, said in an email.
In the Massachusetts case, federal authorities said Laborio was at the center of a boiler-room telemarketing scam that bilked 15 investors of about $5.7 million starting in 2006 in Boston. By early 2009, the operation had moved to Boca Raton, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange commission.
In the South Florida case, which was a separate prosecution even though it involved the same Laborio-run business entities, he pleaded guilty in November 2012 to one count of mail fraud. According to court records, he got caught up in an FBI sting operation that targeted practitioners of dicey stock ploys. Laborio thought he was dealing with the unscrupulous friend of a pension fund manager, filings show.
The rub was that Laborio would agree to sell to the fund artificially inflated shares in his company, Envit Capital Group, in exchange for illegal kickbacks. But the sketchy friend was actually an FBI agent. As part of the fraudulent scheme, in March 2009, Laborio mailed documents and an invoice to a Coral Springs address, court records show. This conduct triggered the mail fraud charge, and he was sentenced in August 2013 to eight months in federal prison, filings state.
Originally, Laborio was ordered by a Miami federal court judge to turn himself in in February. But Laborio filed to get that surrender date extended, first to March 10, then to Aug. 30, so that he could deal with the other fraud case against him in Boston.
Federal court records in Massachusetts show that Laborio faces two counts of mail fraud and one count of conspiracy in connection with the alleged boiler room. That case is still unresolved and before the courts; it appeared to be progressing normally until May 27.
On that day, records show, Laborio was supposed to change his plea. His attorney was present in court, as was the Assistant United States Attorney assigned to the case, records show.
But Laborio was nowhere to be found.
A Massachusetts judge issued a warrant for his arrest.
Sabrina Puglisi, a Miami-based attorney who represents Laborio in the South Florida case, wrote in a Miami federal court filing on May 28 that she is "is unable to reach Mr. Laborio via email and phone."
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