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How a Con Man Stole Millions Selling Fake Facebook Shares

A powerful investment consigliere; a Facebook Inc. insider; the ex-wife of comedian Eddie Murphy: this story has all that, and more.

When it appeared that the Facebook deal would earn him millions in commissions, Burns used cash from investors’ accounts to buy a beach house in Avalon, New Jersey, for $4.6 million, said ESG investors, who filed their own suit against Burns in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, in 2013. He also put a $1.13 million deposit on an office building in Conshohocken. The Facebook deal collapsed in December 2011, when Stratos was arrested and charged with defrauding Nicole Murphy. Still acting as Ken Dennis, Stratos tried to keep the deal alive from jail by having associates text Burns to say that Dennis was unavailable, the government said.

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fraud