North Bellmore man pleads guilty in multimillion-dollar pyramid scheme

A North Bellmore man pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a multimillion-dollar pyramid scheme, federal prosecutors announced Friday.

Jerrold Maurer, 58, faces up to five years in prison for his role in the scheme, the U.S. Justice Department said in a news release.

The scheme was orchestrated by Alex Dee, a U.S. citizen who was living in Canada before his arrest Tuesday in Washington State, prosecutors said, and Maurer, Dee and Brian Kaplan of Fort Collins, Colorado, ran it under the name 8 Figure Dream Lifestyle LLC, 8FDL. Guilty pleas by Maurer and Kaplan were unsealed Friday, according to the news release.

Victims were lured by claims that they “could easily earn between $5,000 and $10,000 in 10 to 14 days” by joining the program, according to the release. The co-conspirators allegedly recruited participants through marketing efforts that included emails, robocalls, videos and webinars.

The criminal case follows a civil case brought against the three men in California in 2019 by the Federal Trade Commission.

The three settled with the FTC in 2020, while neither admitting nor denying guilt. They agreed to a permanent ban against making misleading sales marketing claims and a $31.9 million judgment. Maurer agreed to liquidate his cryptocurrency holdings to partially pay for that judgment, according to the settlement. The FTC announced in 2021 that it would return $1.1 million to consumers who lost money in the scheme.

“The majority of the consumers who joined 8 Figure Dream Lifestyle — at a cost of $2,395 to $22,495 — never earned substantial income, much less attained an ‘8 figure’ lifestyle,” the FTC wrote in its complaint. “They have lost their money, and many have incurred significant loans and credit card debt.”

Maurer also operated a company called JL Net Bargains Inc. in North Bellmore, which was part of the FTC complaint.

One of the sales pitches included in the FTC complaint said: “You are going to discover how to make over $10k A Month online EACH AND EVERY MONTH even if you don't have a product or know how to market & without being a techie!”

Regarding Maurer’s future sentencing, the Department of Justice said in the news release that: “A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.”

An attempt to reach Maurer’s attorney was unsuccessful Friday.