W. Mark Miller, 59, faces a possible 20 year sentence. Miller’s indictment is the latest legal reckoning in the 2009 collapse of the Dallas oil and gas investment fraud (and partial Ponzi scheme) which cheated 7,700 investors out of $485M. Provident co-founder Joseph Blimline, who had operated a separate $28M Ponzi scheme in Michigan before coming to Texas in early 2006, was sentenced this May to 20 years in federal prison, and ordered to pay $407,552,918.95 to victims in restitution. Provident also caused heavy casualties among the 52 broker-dealer firms that made private placements of its investment paper. At least 40% of them are no longer in business.

(FBI at www.fbi.gov/dallas/press-releases)

Christopher Rad, 44, of Cedar Park Texas, was found guilty on six counts. He’ll be sentenced next year. Rad and others paid a network of international spammers $1.4M to spread computer viruses, creating a bot network of hijacked computers to distribute promotional spam intended to raise the price of 39 publicly traded stocks. Command and control of this botnet operated from Russia and China. Rad also made bad faith purchases, falsified documents, and orchestrated hacking into third-party brokerage accounts over 22 months from 2007 through 2009.

(FBI’s Newark office, via the Atlantic Highlands Herald at www.ahherald.com)