Massapequa man pleads guilty to defrauding investors in aspirin company scheme, feds say

A Massapequa man admitted Monday to scamming more than 70 investors out of $3.5 million, purporting to have a company making a powdered aspirin that could stop heart attacks and strokes, New Jersey federal prosecutors said.

Donald A. Milne III, 57, who founded Instaprin Pharmaceuticals Inc. and later SPI Acquisition Corp., faces up to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty via video conference to one count of securities fraud before U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp, said Rachael A. Honig, acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey.

Milne, who will be sentenced in March, will also pay a $5 million fine.

According to prosecutors, after Milne founded SPI, which operated in Merrick, in 2010, he founded Instaprin in 2012.

"Milne executed a scheme to defraud dozens of investors in Instaprin and SPI securities through multiple and ongoing material misrepresentations concerning, among other things, how the victims’ investment money would be used and how their past investments had performed, so that Milne could misappropriate substantial sums of the investors’ money for his own personal gain and enrichment," a release from the U.S. attorney's office said.

Milne falsely told investors their funds would pay for "normal day-to-day operating expenses" and said specific individuals had joined Instaprin as directors and advisers, when they had not, according to court documents. He also fraudulently said Instaprin had been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the release said.

Milne's scheme encompassed at least four separate unregistered securities offerings of Instaprin common stock for public stock offering.

Milne used the money "in Ponzi-scheme fashion" for personal expenses, including a Caribbean vacation, boating expenses, a divorce and operating Island Raceway & Hobby Inc., and a toy car business in Lindenhurst that he operated separately, prosecutors said.

In May 2019, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil complaint against Milne and Instaprin in New Jersey federal court.

Milne's attorney, Joseph Mure Jr. of Brooklyn, declined to comment.