Internet Machine Company & Pantheon End-Game
Glaubman is the 14th person to be sentenced to related crimes in the case. Pantheon Holdings told potential purchasers that the $18,000 Internet kiosks would earn substantial profits from fees for Internet access and from advertising that would be placed on the kiosks, the DOJ said.
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Miami woman sentenced to prison for Internet kiosk scheme
By Grant Gross , IDG News Service , 10/29/2008
A Miami woman has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison and ordered to pay US$18.2 million in restitution for a scheme to sell Internet kiosks that were promised to generate substantial income for buyers.
Lillian Glaubman, who served as administrator for Pantheon Holdings, also known as Internet Machine Company, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice said. She pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and one count of mail fraud in July.
Glaubman is the 14th person to be sentenced to related crimes in the case. Pantheon Holdings told potential purchasers that the $18,000 Internet kiosks would earn substantial profits from fees for Internet access and from advertising that would be placed on the kiosks, the DOJ said. Pantheon promised to perform all the legwork for the kiosk, including finding high-traffic areas for the kiosks, relocating underperforming kiosks and placing advertising.
Locations where the machines were located drew little business, and no advertising was placed on the kiosks, the DOJ said. There were more than 730 victims of the scheme, the DOJ said.
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RipoffReport.com has more than 100 comments posted about Pantheon, with the latest ones coming in January. "I bought one machine, and my dad got three," one poster wrote. "They are large paperweights. They said [the machines] made $1,800 monthly. Well, the best i did was $65, and it cost over $100 to run this tin can."
Glaubman was charged with another person in May 2007 on charges related to the Internet kiosk scheme. Jay Mayne, a Pantheon salesman, was indicted on nine related counts in February 2006, then Mayne and eight other people connected to Pantheon were named in a second indictment in May of that year.
Between October and December 2006, eight defendants were sentenced in the case, after most of them pleaded guilty. The lightest penalty was for 34 months in prison and $1.9 million in restitution. Jeffrey Kuba, a Pantheon owner, salesman and head of customer service, was sentenced in November 2006 to 188 months in prison and $18.1 million in restitution.
Glaubman was the president and manager of Marketing Workforce Providers, a company located in the same office building as Pantheon that assisted with Pantheon operations. Glaubman shipped promotional brochures, processed customer purchases, managed Pantheon's books and issued payments to Pantheon employees and owners, the DOJ said.
Glaubman knew that Pantheon was misrepresenting the Internet kiosks to customers and knew that some customers did not receive the kiosks, the DOJ said. She also concealed the identities of Pantheon's operators, the DOJ said.
The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.
Posted by staff at October 31, 2008 05:44 AM