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GREENBELT, Md. (AP) - The founder of a credit counseling firm accused of cheating debtors out of millions of dollars was jailed Wednesday for failing to obey a court order that he turn over assets to a fund set up to repay the debtors.
U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte said Andris Pukke will be held until he produces assets worth millions of dollars. He is accused of shielding the assets from a fund set up as part of a 2006 settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over the practices of his now defunct firm AmeriDebt.
Messitte found Pukke in contempt of court in March for using friends and family to hide his money in an Internet gambling company, a Belize housing project and a Latvian bank account. The judge gave Pukke time to come up with the money, estimated at more than $30 million. But the judge said Wednesday that Pukke had not produced enough.
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