A federal court in Brooklyn has found four employees of the Evergreen International Spot Trading brokerage firm, controlled by Russian businessman Andrey Kudashev, guilty of fraud. With their participation, 1,400 investors lost about $100 million. The trial of Kudashev himself, who at one time headed the state unitary enterprise Mosoblgaz, is still ongoing.

On Friday, a Brooklyn jury found Polina Sirotina, Mamed Mekhtiyev, Albert Guglielmo and Philip Levenson guilty of conspiracy, money laundering and wire fraud. Sentences will be announced Sept. 26. Each faces up to 30 years in prison.

The charges stem from an investigation in which prosecutors looked into the activities of Evergreen International Spot Trading and a related firm, First Equity Enterprises. Both firms had offices in the World Trade Center in New York City. They went out of business shortly after 9/11, without paying clients nearly $100 million.

According to the prosecution, beginning in November 1997, Evergreen employees called potential investors, asking them to invest in the spot currency market. The money was to be wired to First Equity, which Evergreen employees claimed was an independent clearing house. In fact, the prosecution says, Evergreen was First Equity's only client, and both companies were controlled by Andrei Kudashev, now a fugitive from U.S. justice. First Equity employed only one employee, who spent most of his time playing computer games, prosecutor Cynthia Monaco testified at trial. "[The scheme] was a money-making and spending machine," Monaco said. "The clients' money was spent on bonuses, salaries, commissions, apartments, cars, expensive purchases and well-appointed offices."

After terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001, investors began calling First Equity to "find out if any of the firm's employees were hurt and what happened to their money; but there was no money," Monaco said.

Evergreen and First Equity employees defrauded and lied to customers to hide the fact that Kudashev and his co-conspirators had siphoned off money to secret bank accounts in Hungary and several other countries, the indictment alleges. Investigators were able to locate only $6.5 million of the missing funds in bank accounts in New York, New Jersey, Chicago and Switzerland.

Sirotina, Mekhtiev, Levenson and Evergreen President Guglielmo have said they knew nothing about the scheme. Their lawyers say prosecutors, frustrated by their failure to get Kudashev himself, have turned their clients into scapegoats. Levenson's lawyer, Jeremy Gutman, said his client will appeal. Lawyers for the other plaintiffs could not be reached for comment.

Kudashev's own trial is ongoing. In November 2001, he was indicted on criminal charges of wire fraud and money laundering; the former, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, carries a five-year prison sentence, a $500,000 fine, and double damages to the victims; the latter, 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and double damages. Kudashev, who now lives in Moscow, has pleaded not guilty through his lawyer.

By the time he was charged, Kudashev had been an economic adviser to Moscow Region Governor Boris Gromov for a year and a half, and at the end of September 2001 he was appointed CEO of the State Unitary Enterprise Mosoblgaz. In June 2002, Gromov appointed Dmitry Bolshakov to replace Kudashev. (Materials from DJ were used.)

You can't blame everything on September 11th