MARBLEHEAD – Two local men were charged Wednesday in federal court on a slew of securities offenses stemming from their management of the Beverly-based company Locateplus Holdings Corporation, Inc., which provides access to public real estate, telephone and other records.Jon Latorella, 47, of Marblehead and James Fields, 43, of Brookline, were charged in an indictment with securities fraud, false statements to company auditors and to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), false certifications as the CEO and CFO of a publicly traded company, aggravated identity theft and engaging in unlawful financial transactions.The indictment alleges that in 2002, Latorella, the former president and CEO of Locateplus, and Fields, the former CFO and later acting CEO of the company, engaged in several fraudulent schemes intended to artificially inflate the company’s revenues.Some of the schemes included falsifying loan documents to make it appear that a fictional entity owed Locateplus more than $1 million; falsifying revenue streams to make it appear that an outside entity was paying Locateplus under the terms of a contract and using the identity of a young man who drowned in Marblehead Harbor in 1985, according to a release from U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz’s Economic Crimes Unit.If convicted of the charges, Latorella and Fields face up to 20 years of imprisonment on the securities law violations charged in the indictment, as well as up to five years for conspiracy, up to 10 years for engaging in unlawful financial transactions and for the charge of aggravated identity theft, a minimum of two years imprisonment on and after any other sentence they receive.
