Bail Set in Newport Suspect’s Fraud Indictment
A U.S. District judge Friday rejected a federal prosecutor’s recommendation and set $150,000 bail for Michael Maddox, a Newport Beach man indicted on charges of mail and wire fraud in a precious-metals telephone solicitation swindle.
A federal magistrate earlier had refused bail for Maddox, finding the risk that he would flee to be too great.
But Friday, U.S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall set bail on condition that Maddox submit to intensive supervision and avoid contact with drugs, alcohol and firearms.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Terree A. Bowers, chief of the major frauds section, said that if Maddox produces bail, the government will seek to learn the source of the funds in another hearing.
“He’s a long way from being released,” Bowers said of Maddox, who was being held pending trial in the Terminal Island Federal Correctional Facility in Los Angeles Harbor.
Maddox is awaiting trial on charges that he set up a telephone solicitation scheme that reaped $7 million from unsuspecting investors.
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