A 45-year-old man was arrested in Los Angeles today after he allegedly defrauded a Granite Bay woman out of more than $7 million in divorce proceeds, authorities said.
Troy Stratos is charged with 11 counts of wire and mail fraud, two counts of money laundering and one count of obstruction of justice, a news release from the office of U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner states.
Wagner's office says Stratos convinced the woman to execute a revocable trust with him in Fair Oaks into which she placed cash from her divorce and houses. He promised to invest the money overseas and earn a high rate in return, but he diverted "substantial sums of money" for his own use, the news release states.
He also told the woman he knew Middle Eastern royal families who would buy her Granite Bay home and suggested that she lease luxury cars to include in the package to make the deal more appealing, the release states. Instead, Stratos lived in the home, used the cars and never sold the home to a royal family.
The release says Stratos convinced the woman to refinance several homes she owned to pull out equity after much of the initial cash assets had been used by Stratos. He told the woman the equity would cover expenses while her assets were invested overseas, but no investments were made and he used some of the equity to pay for his own expense, the release states.
Authorities also allege that Stratos told his bookkeeper to withhold some documents requested of the bookkeeper in a grand jury subpoena in February 2007.
Stratos was scheduled to appear in court this afternoon. The Federal Bureau of Investigation assisted in the case.
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "Report Abuse" link to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
• Don't flag other users' comments just because you don't agree with their point of view. Please only flag comments that violate these guidelines.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "Report Abuse" link to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them.
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "Report Abuse" link below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.