SEATTLE — A Las Vegas man who previously lived in Bellevue pleaded guilty Wednesday to securities fraud after defrauding investors and marijuana businesses of more than $30 million.
Justin Costello, 42, purchased two companies that he re-named and attracted thousands of investors through false statements. Among those statements to private investors were that Costello had an MBA from Harvard, his personal wealth was much larger than it really was, and that one of the companies he purchased had over $1 billion in assets under management.
Between July 1, 2019, and May 18, 2021, over 7,500 investors purchased and sold GRN Holding Corp. securities while Costello was making, and causing to be made, material misrepresentations concerning GRN Holding Corp. Investors in GRN Holding Corp. collectively lost $25 million.
Costello's other company, Hempstract Inc., used false statements and defrauded investors to the tune of $6 million between Nov. 2018 and June 2021.
Between October 2019 and January 2021, Costello also used an "unindicted coconspirator" to use Twitter in a "pump and dump" stock scheme. Costello would buy the penny stock of a company and then have his "prolific Twitter user" tweet falsehoods about the company to inflate the price of the stock.
After the share price went up, Costello would sell the shares for a significant profit. Overall, Costello made over $625,000 in the pump-and-dump scheme.
In 2017, Costello purchased Pacific Banking Corp, a company that provides banking services to marijuana businesses in a number of states, including Washington. He sent false account statements to these companies making them think their money was secure, but Costello instead diverted money from three marijuana businesses to benefit himself and his other companies. In total, the three businesses lost about $3.7 million.
Costello was arrested in October in southern California and had fake identification documents and cash indicating that he hoped to flee to Mexico to avoid prosecution.
As part of the plea agreement, Costello agreed to pay at least $35 million in restitution. He also agreed to join prosecutors in requesting a 10-year prison sentence.