A Federal Judge Sentence Floridian Baseball Picks Fraudster Four Years in Prison

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West Palm Beach federal judge has sentenced a Florida fraudster who had been on run for the last 15 years to 48 months in prison.

Boca Raton Craig Levine, 54 was identified in Austria last year by facial recognition technology while trying to create a bank account using a false name. At the time, were on Interpol Red Notice, he was extradited to the US in October 2020.

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Earlier, Levine owned baseballpicks.net, babasket-ballpicks.net, and nfifootballpicks.tv websites, where he sold tips and allowed registered customers to invest in his supposed gambling expertise.

According to prosecutors, Levine used fake accounts and accents while speaking to victims. He even sometimes recorded casino sounds to confuse victims that he was indeed calling from a casino. Levine has been ordered to pay $600, 000 in restitution to his victims.

Earlier in 2004, Levine was under FBI mail fraud investigation and wire fraud. His passport was confiscated, but luckily, he obtained a new one and fled the US. Later in 2008, he was arrested in Poland but disappeared before he could be extradited.

He resurfaced later in 2014 in Guatemala, where he was arrested with suspicion of money laundering and passport forging scam. However, the Guatemalan authority believed he was Russian as he carried a genuine Russian passport.

While in Austria, Levine carried a Bulgarian passport and went by the name ‘Alexander Koslov’.