El Toro : 4 Suspects Will Return to Face Fraud Charges

Members of a family accused of running a boiler-room operation in El Toro and other California cities will return to California from Miami to face federal charges of wire fraud and mail fraud.

Joan D. Fisch and another man indicted in the scheme, which the FBI claims bilked about 2,000 U.S. and Canadian precious-metal investors of $8.5 million, will return to the West Coast on their own.

Her husband, Joel Fisch, and their son, Todd, remain jailed in the Florida city without bond provisions and will be returned to California by U.S marshals.

The Fisches and Warren Sharp waived their right to further proceedings about removal during a hearing Friday in Miami before U.S. Magistrate William C. Turnoff.

Joan Fisch and Sharp had been freed on respective bonds of $150,000 and $100,000 earlier this week.

The arrests of the four Oct. 16 at their Miami Beach apartment had closed down the boiler-room scheme, FBI agents said.

According to a 48-count indictment, Joel Fisch was the chairman of First Trading Group Ltd., which in 1983 and 1984 had offices in El Toro, Los Angeles, San Diego, Oakland and San Francisco. His wife and son were officers in the firm.

The company would get a deposit from investors, who then received fraudulent documentation saying the money had been invested in the precious metals markets, said FBI Agent William Wells, who heads the agency’s Miami office.

When the four learned that the FBI was probing their operation, the family fled to Vancouver, Canada, with large sums of cash and precious metals, Wells said last week. In Canada, they ran a similar operation, he said.