GUILTY!!!!!!

After deliberating for 7 days, a jury today found Michael Osborn guilty of 2 counts of automobile theft, 2 counts of intent to defraud and 2 counts of check fraud. Michael was immediately taken into custody and held without bail, pending a sentencing hearing on July 21, 2010. He is expected to be sentenced to a term of up to 10 years in prison.

Hopefully, this will provide some comfort to the people he has hurt over the last 15 years.

Jury Deliberates Michael's Immediate Future

It looks like Mike is going to spend the long weekend sweating, as the jury in his car theft and check fraud case enters its second week of deliberations.

Apparently, the panel is carefully weighing the evidence presented to them by Deputy District Attorney Renee Jones, who has been quoted as saying she expects Mike to be convicted on all counts and be sentenced to up to ten years in prison. Mike did get a bit of a break when the judge reduced four of the infractions to misdemeanors from felonies, but things are not looking good for him.

Amongst the evidence heard, was that the credit application signed by Mike listed his old Fullerton address on Catlin Avenue as his current address. As submitted into evidence, Mike had actually long been evicted from that home, under an Unlawful Detainer action brought by the landlady for non-payment of rent. The deputy DA used this fact to try and show that Mike had every intention to defraud Car Max out of the two cars in question.

Even more damning was the evidence of Mike's history of bad check writing, testified to by other recipients of bad checks. Mike had used bad checks as deposits for the two vehicles acquired from Car Max, further calling into question the honorableness of his intention.

Unbelievably, Mike is still able to collect investments for his newest schemes, courtesy of a network of brokers providing him with eager clients who are mesmerized by his pie-in-the-sky, too-good-to-be-true stories of lavish returns. I still get regular phone calls about his 10X Oscillator Fund.

So Now I Am A Disgruntled Investor...

Came back from vacation this morning to face 631 emails, 122 of which were regarding our hero and 6 of which were with respect to his newest product (read: scam), The 10x Oscillator Fund. Near as I can figure, this fund is much like the CU Swing Equity Fund where Mike is claiming that he has bank funding to the tune of 10 times the investment principle. Uh, no! What Mike does have is a day trading account at Active Trading Network, which provides him (as most day trading accounts do) with 1000% leverage. Once again, Mike is claiming that the investor's principle will be returned within 30 days (15 by some accounts) and that profits from the trading scheme will be distributed on a bi-weekly basis. To underwrite the principle, Mike is once again binding a Fidelity Bond. In the past, Mike has not kept up the payments on these bonds and the investors are left holding the bag when he either loses the money or absconds with it.

More frequently, Michael keeps coming up against this blog when having to sells his marks on his schemes. His newest explanation of his adversary (me), is that I am a disgruntled investor. Well as disgruntled as I am, my gruntlement cannot be attributed to anything like a lost investment. As I have documented well here, Michael and Harold Gregg owe me approximately $500,000 on a judgment for fraud, their share of the pie in the Victory Capital Holdings scam. I am happy to say that I never gave these con artists a dime.

What is truly amazing here, is that Mike is so good at what he does, he still has suckers who are willing to take him at his word, even with everything posted on this blog. One such emailer, wants to believe Michael so much, that he has asked me to produce further evidence of my allegations. Well kids, I am not here to do your dirty work. I run this blog for free. I point you in the proper direction and the rest is up to you. But if I can find it so can you. Still, I'll throw you a bone and provide you with the link to a similar scheme that was run by Mike a few years ago, known as Principal Mortgage Fund. Within the link to the SEC filing, you can see that a binder was written for a Fidelity Bond. Guess what? Payments were not kept up here either. Furthermore, you will note that Osborn co-conspirator Harold Gregg, was identified as General Counsel for the Principal Mortgage Fund. Ladies and gentlemen, as I have tried to beat into your heads for some time now, Harold Gregg is not an attorney and has not been since 1978. Although Mr. Gregg would have you believe otherwise, a Juris Doctorate degree alone does not make you an attorney, does not give you the right to practice law, and most certainly does not give you the authority to act as General Counsel for anything.

While you are at the SEC website, why not also look up Principal Capital Group. This was another funding source for Michael's day trading habit and high lifestyle. In one year, Michael lost $2 million of investor funds and was subsequently kicked out of his posh offices and fancy house both in Fullerton, CA and both for non-payment of rent. Still, he was left with a beautiful BMW and Range Rover, amongst other investor funded luxuries.

P.S. I was disappointed to hear that Investment Broker Anthony Hruska is still enabling Michael's schemes, including the 10X Oscillator Fund. It appears like many before him (see Attorney Sean Morrissey and Detroit Restaurateur Gregg Gedda, amongst countless others), Mr. Hruska is letting himself be mesmerized by tales of untold riches, while refusing to look at the clear view in front of him.

Invest wisely. Do your homework.

Stories From The Master Story Teller

Those of you who know Michael, know that he comes up with a lot of excuses for not keeping his commitments. "The baby is sick". "The baby is in the hospital". "My grandmother had a stroke". "The bank screwed up". "I didn't get to the bank on time". "I'm waiting for confirmation of the funds". "I couldn't get to the bank because I had to babysit". etc., etc., etc. Michael is also famous for concocting phony wire transfer documents, proof of funds documents, and (according to at least one ex-wife) phony marriage licenses.

Recently, I've had reports of Michael's two newest excuses. Apparently, March 19, 2010 was an Osborn milestone for payment to at least two of his victims. Well wasn't it convenient that he had to appear in court that day and I was able to arrange for his arrest. That was the day Mike was handcuffed in the courtroom for not appearing at his dead-beat Dad hearing in Los Angeles.

Here's the kicker. Osborn used the arrest as an excuse for his non-performance. He let everyone concerned know that he spent over 24 hours in the hole. However, rather than admit he was a dead-beat Dad, the circumstances for his arrest, according to his account, was that he was found in Contempt of Court for mouthing off to a Judge.

Another story Mike has been telling lately also regards his inability to make the payments that are due to the participants in his current Ponzi scheme. According to him, I have obtained a Writ of Execution which has been tying up his bank account as a result of "bullshit" lawsuit that should have been against a Nevada corporation, and that his lawyers are now resolving. Well I have no lawsuit outstanding against Mike. What I do have is a 5 year old, irreversible judgment against him in excess of $500,000 for (you guessed it) fraud. I would love to have a Writ of Execution tying up his bank account but he won't tell me where it is.

If Mike told me the sky was blue, I would be positive that it was red.

Two Con Artists Are Better Than One

Birds of a feather...Seems that Michael's current sidekick and partner in the Commissum Universes Swing Equity Fund fraud is a convicted felon. Corey Engelen who operates under Infinite One, LLC, was convicted in 1995 of 11 counts of making a false statement to a financial institution and sentenced to 22 months in prison. In spite of every effort to overturn the ruling, including blaming his lawyer for not telling him to take the plea bargain (he did), Engelen's appeal was ultimately denied by an Appellate court which unanimously upheld the trials court's finding.

Apparently, Engelen was successful in keeping his past in the past until now, because he has had some success accumulating funds from retail investors. It's hard to believe that an informed investor who has any sort of respect for his money would entrust his assets to someone who has been convicted of defrauding a bank.

But then again, Osborn keeps finding suckers, so who knows.

Introducing Commissum Universes, LP

Well Michael is at it again and he is now running his schemes under the non-entity, Commissum Universes, LP. It is a non-entity because it is not registered with any government body, be it at the State or Federal level. Also unregistered, is one of Osborn's hot schemes, the CU Equity Swing Fund. Through this fund, Michael (who falsely and fraudulently claims to be an SEC registered prime broker) collects funding from retail investors to run his day trading operation. He tells his dupes that their investment will be leveraged 1000% and that the principal is insured by a Loss Policy in order to take all risk away from the funder. Although Michael presents a bound insurance policy, what he doesn't tell his investors is that he doesn't pay the insurance premiums. Thusly, at the end of the day, the investors are plum out of luck if Michael's trades are unsuccessful or if he just decides not to pay the dividends.

Helping Osborn execute his schemes, is a relatively new cohort, Corey Engelen and his firm Infinite One, LLC. Mr. Engelen has stated within documents obtained by this author, that Osborn is a partner in Infinite One. While Infinite One sells the CU Swing Equity Fund offering, it is yet undiscovered whether it owns the trading account manipulated by Osborn.

In the past few weeks I have been inundated with complaints from dupes who claim they have been taken by these "partners". Of course they all express regrets at not having done their due diligence on Michael sooner.

Another common denominator in some of the schemes is Nine Asset Management, LLC. and specifically, principle Anthony Hruska. It should be noted that some believe that Hruska should not necessarily be painted by the Osborn-Engelen brush, and that he is merely mesmerized by their intelligence, gift of gab, and tactics, three important qualities commonly found in con men. Nevertheless, whether he is complicit in these current Ponzi schemes or not, Hruska can be credited with providing some (and attempting to provide even more) of the ill-gotten booty obtained by Messers Osborn and Engelen. At a minimum, Hruska is negligent with funds, not a quality you want in an investment consultant.

One of the schemes Mr. Hruska has bought into is Osborn-Engelen's purported ability to fund bonds courtesy of Warner Films, LLC an arm of Warner Brothers. The boys have been representing that they have access to $500,000,000 in funding and are looking for brokers, like Mr. Hruska, to file applications on behalf of their clients. It is yet not totally clear what angle has been concocted to press their advantage, but given Osborn's history of nefarious acts, the rule of caveat emptor could not be more applicable. If indeed Warner Films has this funding available, they would be well advised to find new representatives for their money.


return to michael-osborn.info

Michael arrested AGAIN!

Well it happened again! Michael appeared at his Trial Setting Conference on March 19, 2010 in Fullerton Court to set the date for trial of his Automobile Theft/Check Fraud charges. That hearing was continued to April 30 but during his visit to the courtroom, Sheriff Deputies again slapped the cuffs on him and held him on an outstanding warrant for his failure to appear at a Dead-Beat Dad hearing in Los Angeles. After being a guest at Orange County's Hotel for Fugitives for over 24 hours, Osborn was released and order to appear in front of a Los Angeles Judge.

Osborn, ever resilient, used his arrest to his advantage and explained to those who were looking for him (and money), that delays were caused by the incarceration. Some accounts have Osborn explaining his arrest as not having been for being a Dead-Beat Dad, but for mouthing off to a Judge and thus being held for Contempt of Court.

Always look to this forum for the true story.

Arrested During Trial!

Michael was in court on Thursday to hear that the Judge, who had heard his preliminary trial two weeks earlier, found that there was enough evidence to bind him over for a jury trial on 8 of the ten charges filed against him for various counts of car theft and check fraud. This came as no surprise to anyone, least of all Michael's flamboyant attorney, Evan Ginsburg.

As soon as the judge was finished ordering him back for an arraignment on February 24, the attending bailiff, who is also a deputy sheriff, ordered Michael to stand up and slapped the bracelets on him. Michael was arrested on the warrant that was issued against him for failing to appear at the judgment debtor examination I was conducting in an attempt to collect the half a million dollars that he, his wife Shanney Gallegos Osborn, and Harold Gregg owe me. At last word, the Sheriff's office was preparing to pick up Shanney at her mother's La Habra home on a warrant issued for her own failure to appear.

Michael spent almost three hours in a holding cell while waiting for an available judge to deal with this development which, to say the least, came as a complete shock to Mike. Unlucky for him, Commissioner Leverson ended up attending to the charge. Leverson, who was already familiar with Michael's tendency to not show up for court, reprimanded Michael for "having no respect for judicial authority". He ordered Michael held on $50,000 bail and ordered him to appear in Commissioner Myers courtroom the next morning to answer for his multiple failures to appear in her courtroom for the judgment debtor exam.

After spending the night as a guest of the county, Michael bailed out at 6:00am and headed to Commissioner Myers courtroom where he was ordered back to complete my examination of him on April 15.

A note to Shanney and Harold: Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.