Date: September 12, 2022 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov Syracuse, NY — Glen Zinszer, of Liverpool, New York was sentenced today to serve 51 months in federal prison for committing wire fraud and filing false tax returns, announced United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman, Thomas Fattorusso, Special Agent in Charge, New York Field Office, Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation ("IRS-CI"), and Janeen DiGuiseppi, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). As part of his previous guilty plea, Zinszer admitted that he began operating the Brazzlebox company in 2012, which he represented to investors would be like Facebook for business. Beginning in April 2013 and continuing until approximately the summer of 2016, Zinszer made false representations to investors about how Brazzlebox was doing to cause them to invest more money and stay invested. For example, Zinszer inflated Brazzlebox's user numbers and told employees to create fake user accounts to inflate those numbers, misrepresented purportedly revenue-generating strategic partnerships, forged documents to effectuate those falsehoods, and forged a letter of intent to purchase Brazzlebox for millions of dollars. From 2012 through 2016, Zinszer used a substantial portion of the money invested in Brazzlebox to finance his lifestyle rather than to operate the business, including paying mortgages on his homes and purchasing concert tickets and jewelry. Although Zinszer used money from Brazzlebox to finance his lifestyle, he willfully filed false tax returns underreporting his income in tax years 2013-2016. Senior United States District Judge Frederick J. Scullin, Jr. also imposed a 3 year term of supervised release, which will start after Zinszer is released from prison, and ordered him to pay restitution in the amount of $3,049,933 to his victims including the government, forfeiture in the amount of $2,763,811, and a $200 special assessment. Zinszer's case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation ("IRS-CI") and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Michael D. Gadarian and Geoffrey J.L. Brown.
