Brian Robert "Mailman" Sodi, who had ties to the Florida-based advance-deposit wagering company Premier Turf Club, faces federal charges of committing a series of frauds involving the promotion of penny stocks.
PTC general manager Todd Bowker said Sodi, of Boca Raton, Fla., hasn't been a partner with the ADW since 2010. But, filings with regulators in Kentucky and Florida suggest ties between Sodi and PTC may have continued into at least 2016.
As for the federal criminal charges, Sodi pleaded not guilty March 26 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama on charges he used Florida-based publishing houses to distribute misleading and deceptive promotional mailers recommending the purchase of certain penny stocks, while concealing from potential investors that he was secretly selling those same stocks. He is accused of committing these crimes in 2012 and 2013 and faces 25 years in prison and millions of dollars in fines.
The U.S. Attorney, Northern District of Alabama, alleges Sodi obscured his involvement in the scheme by using offshore accounts and intermediaries to launder proceeds of his alleged fraud back to himself and his publishing houses.
The 10-count indictment doesn't list any connection to Premier Turf Club, which last year handled more than $38 million in pari-mutuel wagers. Bowker said Sodi hasn't been involved in the ADW in more than seven years.
"He hasn't been a co-owner since 2010," Bowker said.
Still, some more recent regulatory filings suggest a tie continued between Sodi and PTC. A filing with the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission included a 2016 Florida Limited Liability Company annual report that listed the principal place of business for Premier Turf Club as the same address that a 2018 Securities and Exchange Commission court filing says is where Sodi's companies operated. This address also is listed in the Florida Division of Corporations filings as the principal address for the former List Data Solutions and Capital Financial Media, both companies where Sodi was listed as manager (or managing member) in Florida regulatory filings.
Capital Financial Media and List Data Solutions, along with GLJ Holdings and Trinity Investment Research, are companies that prosecutors allege were used by Sodi in "penny stock fraud" through the distribution of mailers by postal mail, email, and online advertising.
The PTC address listed in the most current Florida Division of Corporations filing is 2196 Main St., Dunedin, Fla., but a notation indicates this address was changed April 6, 2017. The current listed mailing address in that filing is a post office box in Boynton Beach, Fla. It matches the mailing address of the former Capital Financial Media and the mailing address submitted to the KHRC for PTC in 2016.
The Dunedin address in the Florida Division of Corporations filing matches one supplied in a 2016 filing with the KHRC as PTC's principal office location. Bowker said the only address he recalls filing in recent company documents is for current managing member Wes Berman. Sodi is not listed in the current Florida Division of Corporations filing for Premier Turf Club, which lists Alison Pandev as registered agent and Berman as managing member.
Pandev has signed as the registered agent for a number of companies in which Sodi was associated, like Capital Financial, List Data Solutions, Best Life Herbals, and others listed in Florida government documents.
In the criminal indictment, Sodi is accused of hiding his ownership interest in the promoted stocks by trading through Arliss, a Swiss account, instead of through a brokerage account held in his own name.
He is facing 10 criminal counts in the Alabama court. On April 13 the U.S. Attorney Jay Town argued that Sodi's request to be removed from geo-location monitoring in favor of a real estate bond be denied.
"He is facing a lengthy prison sentence and millions of dollars in penalties," U.S. Attorney Town wrote in the government's response to the request to modify Sodi's conditions of release. "He lives on the east coast of Florida, only a short ferry ride from the Bahamas and other offshore havens. He also owns a luxury resort home on the southern Pacific coast of Nicaragua. In short, he has every incentive to flee and the financial resources to remain a fugitive."
