WASHINGTON, USA – A Swiss executive pleaded guilty Monday to participating in a multimillion-dollar securities fraud scheme after living abroad as a fugitive for nearly 11 years.
According to court documents, Martin Schlaepfer, 67, a Swiss national, identified himself to victims as the chief executive officer of Malom Group AG, a purported Swiss investment company.
Beginning as early as October 2009, Schlaepfer and his co-conspirators, located in Switzerland and Las Vegas, Nevada, orchestrated a scheme in which they promoted investments that they knew to be fictitious. Schlaepfer and his co-conspirators told victims that, for an up-front payment, Malom would provide access to lucrative investment opportunities and substantial cash loans.
To effectuate this scheme, the co-conspirators provided victims with fabricated bank documents purporting to show that Malom held hundreds of millions of dollars in overseas bank accounts. When victims wired their money into an escrow account controlled by the co-conspirators, the money was released and disbursed to, among others, Schlaepfer for his own personal use. As a result of the scheme, victims were defrauded of approximately $6 million.
Schlaepfer was indicted in December 2013, arrested in Italy in September 2024, pursuant to an Interpol Red Notice, and extradited to the United States in July 2025.
Three of Schlaepfer’s co-conspirators, Anthony Brandel, James Warras and Sean Finn, were found guilty of conspiracy and multiple counts of wire fraud and securities fraud following separate jury trials in 2015 and 2020, and each sentenced to 87 months in prison. A fourth defendant, Joseph Micelli, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud in 2015 and was sentenced to 60 months in prison. A fifth defendant, Hans-Jurg Lips, remains at large outside the United States. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Schlaepfer pleaded guilty to securities fraud and is scheduled to be sentenced on June 9 and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the US Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Assistant attorney-general, A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s criminal division and first assistant US attorney Sigal Chattah, for the District of Nevada made the announcement.
The FBI’s Las Vegas Field Office is investigating the case.
Senior Counsel Anna G. Kaminska and assistant US attorney Richard Anthony Lopez for the District of Nevada are prosecuting the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs worked with Italian authorities to secure the extradition of Schlaepfer from Italy.
