Railroad Salvage Scam results in conviction

[Anonymous]

Man convicted in $11 million salvage fraud scheme
(The Associated Press circulated the following story on January 22.)

PITTSBURGH, Pa. -- A man was convicted of swindling 116 investors out of more than $11 million in a bogus scheme to salvage railroad materials and resell them at staggering profits.

Robert Atkinson, 56, of Brackenridge, ran the scam to feed a gambling habit and was "mesmerized" by his love of horse racing, said Deputy Attorney General Paul Von Geis Jr.

"Conservatively, you could say he's looking at 30 years in prison," said Attorney General's spokesman Kevin Harley.

That's because more than 30 of Atkinson's victims were age 60 or older, and each of those cases require he spend at least a year in prison under state laws designed to protect the elderly from fraud. Atkinson's victims lived in 11 southwestern Pennsylvania counties.

Butler County Judge Thomas Doerr raised Atkinson's bond to $1 million immediately after his conviction Tuesday and ordered him jailed until his sentencing March 4.

Atkinson told investors their money would be used to purchase railroad scrap that would then be sold at a profit, with returns of up to 300 percent. Atkinson also falsely portrayed himself as a "preferred vendor" with Norfolk Southern and CSX railroads. The railroads did not have records of any scrap dealing with him, prosecutors said.

While Atkinson repaid investors with interest in the early stages, agents said investors were then urged to let principal and interest payments be rolled into other railroad salvage operations.

What was actually occurring was a pyramid scheme in which earlier investors were repaid with proceeds generated by new investors who weren't repaid.

Defense attorney Charles Nedz said Atkinson became overextended, borrowed money from private investors and then lost money simply due to bad luck.

[Anonymous]

Good place for him.Lets hope he never sees daylight again.

[JoeKoh]

Good.I hope his stay at they gray bar hotel is long.
stay safe
Joe

[dharmon]

The only road he'll be on is ...Conrail.......

or I guess you could say for him..Daylight will be Limited.....

[tree68]

"I hear that train a comin'....."

[rrnut282]

I'm still waiting for someone from the shallow end of the gene pool to try to "salvage" one of the railbanked lines thinking it's abandoned and running into the RR crew restoring the line coming the other way. My guess is that this situation would require as many ambulances as any other "cornfield meet".

[Anonymous]

This **** me off. People work hard their entire life to make something for themselves and along comes a jerk who takes itt away. I hope he roots in jail next to the Enron execs.!!!!!

[mudchicken]

rrnut282:

Pack your bags Bubba, you're going on tour!
(1) Creede, CO
(2) Sedalia, MO (US-69) & Lee's Summit .....Missouri Central Route
(3) East St. Louis, IL
(4) Kent/Auburn WA
(5)Columbiana County OH
(6) Salt Lake City

The shallow end of the gene pool tends to get elected and put into political office. They then get their kissin' cousins the highway engineers and real estate lizzards to help out.

[Anonymous]

MC-

Ab-SO-lutely correct!

LC

[dknelson]

Gambling addictions do horrid things to people and create far more havoc in people's lives than this guy did. Lots of embezzling is attributable to gambling.
Dave Nelson