An upstate New York man accused of bilking investors out of $35 million in a Ponzi scheme involving oil and gas exploration in Kentucky and Tennessee is dead from an apparent suicide. Ashvin Zaveri, 71, late last year was charged with 16 counts of money laundering and mail and wire fraud dating back to 2003 (see NGI, Dec. 21, 2009). Zaveri shot himself on a park bench in the Rochester, NY, suburb of Mendon, the Associated Press reported. Zaveri had been expected to plead guilty to tax and fraud charges in September. He faced six to eight years in prison.

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