Local News in Brief : Huntington Beach : Suspect Arrested in Telemarketing Swindle

A 26-year-old businessman was arrested Friday on charges of operating a $100,000 telemarketing swindle that purported to offer customers investments in ancient coins and valuable bonds from a top national stockbrokerage.

Anthony Polozzolo, who operated a Huntington Beach-based telemarketing operation known as Value Investment Network, is accused in a federal grand jury indictment of luring customers into the scam by feigning affiliation with the brokerage house of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith.

According to prosecutors David Katz and Steven Madison, Polozzolo and a co-defendant mailed solicitations on what appeared to be a Merrill Lynch letterhead promising customers who invested in coins with them $5,000 in bonds.

“Should you have any questions regarding this gift, please feel free to contact the Merrill Lynch account executive whose name appears below,” the solicitation said.

In fact, Value Investment Network had no connection with Merrill Lynch, and not only did customers not receive any free bonds, most found that their money had never been invested in coins either, Katz said.

“This is the classic Southern California commodities swindle,” Katz said.

Federal prosecutors say Polozzolo and his co-defendant, Brian F. Weiss, who remains a fugitive, collected $50,000 to $100,000 from investors across the country until a suspicious client tracked Polozzolo down in his hotel room and eventually contacted police, who alerted U.S. postal inspectors.

Polozzolo, who was arrested Friday at his parents’ home in Mira Loma in Riverside County, was convicted on a similar charge when he was 19, Katz said.

A U.S. magistrate set bail at $25,000.