ARRESTS MADE IN TELEMARKETING SCAM; TWO SUSPECTS INVOLVED WITH KIDNAPPED MAN.Byline: Jesse Hiestand Daily News Staff Writer Federal agents arrested two men Friday who are suspected of being involved in a telemarketing scam with Chris Rawlings, the Woodland Hills man who died after being abducted abducted Distal angulation of an extremity away from the midline of the body in a transverse plane and away from a sagittal plane passing through the proximal aspect of the foot or part, or away from some other specified reference point from his home on Feb. 8. Timothy Carlnell Griffieth, 32, was taken into custody in Las Vegas by agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), division of the U.S. Dept. of Justice charged with investigating all violations of federal laws except those assigned to some other federal agency. and U.S. Postal Service The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) processes and delivers mail to individuals and businesses within the United States. The service seeks to improve its performance through the development of efficient mail-handling systems and operates its own planning and engineering programs. , said FBI spokeswoman Laura Bosley. John Darris Dickens, 33, was arrested in Los Angeles. ``(Griffieth and Dickens) worked in a fraudulent stock boiler room boiler room n. a telephone bank operation in which fast-talking telemarketers or campaigners attempt to sell stock, services, goods, or candidates and act as if they are calling from an established company or brokerage. which promoted a venture in violation of federal fraud and security laws,'' she said. Los Angeles police do not believe the two men arrested Friday were connected to the kidnapping of Rawlings. ``We have no evidence to support that,'' said LAPD 1. LAPD - Link Access Procedure on the D channel. 2. LAPD - Los Angeles Police Department. Detective Rick Swanston of the West Valley Division. Griffieth and Dickens are charged with mail fraud, sale of unregistered securities and money laundering, Bosley said. Griffieth and Dickens were employed at WRI WRI Wolfram Research, Inc. (makers of Mathematica) WRI World Resources Institute WRI War Resisters' International WRI Western Research Institute (Laramie, WY) WRI Water Research Institute Holdings Inc., which was raising investment dollars for Walters Records. WRI Holdings promoted the investments as a way to buy a stake in unreleased Beatles and Marvin Gaye recordings. WRI Holdings was one of four separate investment schemes perpetrated by Rawlings, Scott Courtney and Peter Aro, according to an affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Nora Collas. Courtney and Aro were indicted INDICTED, practice. When a man is accused by a bill of indictment preferred by a grand jury, he is said to be indicted. in November. Courtney is out on bail awaiting trial, and Aro is a fugitive. Rawlings, a former Crespi High School football star, was under federal investigation when he was kidnapped from his Quedo Drive home on Feb. 8 by two men who put him in the trunk of his rented Bentley. The kidnappers were being chased by police when they crashed on Tampa Avenue. Rawlings was ejected from the truck and died from his injuries two days later. According to court documents, Rawlings and his partners tried to raise $3 million to $6 million through the sale of preferred stock in companies that allegedly made movies, music recordings, cosmetics and one that offered public utilities. Griffieth and Dickens were employed at WRI Holdings as ``openers,'' or people who would make the initial calls to prospective investors, officials said. The two men are also accused of converting the proceeds of the scheme to cash that could be distributed to Rawlings, Aro and Courtney. |
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