Samuel "Mouli" Cohen

Samuel "Mouli" Cohen (born April 8, 1958) is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist and convicted fraudster. In April 2012 he was found guilty of defrauding investors of amounts totaling over $35 million and was sentenced to 22 years in prison.

The companies Cohen has been involved in since the 1980s include Playnet Technologies, Voltage Capital, LAMIA, Aristo International and Ecast.

Conviction
In 2009, Mouli Cohen defrauded investors of more than $28 million and two lawsuits were filed. A federal grand jury in 2010 indicted Cohen on 32 felony counts of fraud and money laundering and was arrested in August 2010. In November 2011, Cohen was found guilty of 15 counts of wire fraud, 11 counts of money laundering, and three counts of tax evasion. He was acquitted of six additional charges. At the courthouse, he was taken into custody.

U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag said evidence at the trial showed that Cohen collected more than $30 million from defrauding over 55 investors, including actor Danny Glover and the Vanguard Public Foundation (a San Francisco-based nonprofit founded by Glover and Harry Belafonte which funded civil rights efforts).

Cohen didn't testify at trial and his lawyer said he expected Cohen would appeal the conviction.

The prosecution described Cohen as a "congenital liar and serial fraudster" and recommended to the court that Cohen be sentenced to between 30 years to life and be denied bail while awaiting sentencing. On April 30th, 2012, Cohen was sentenced to 22 years in prison. The sentence was described as "one of the harshest sentences meted out in a white-collar criminal case."