Newsday – Maybe you heard the one about the phony multibillion-dollar Long Island hedge fund that was actually performing a public service.

No? Well, apparently neither did four confidence men, according to federal prosecutors.

The four were convicted yesterday in federal court in Central Islip after walking into a federal sting operation in which they thought they were about to collect $3 billion from a hedge fund. The money was to be used to build what they said was a pipeline through the Russian Republic of Buryatia, prosecutors said.

The unnamed fund was a creation of FBI agents and the Postal Inspection Service, Assistant U.S. Attorney James Miskiewicz said during the seven-day trial.

Read Complete Article

Tags: central islip, confidence men, fbi, federal prosecutors, federal sting operation, long island, money, multibillion-dollar, newsday, pipeline, postal inspection service, russian republic