Guilty plea made in bonds scheme

Jace Radke

Monday, Feb. 18, 2002 | 9:33 a.m.

A Las Vegas man who gained national attention in 1998 by making an unsubstantiated bid to buy the NFL's Minnesota Vikings will be sentenced in May for leading a conspiracy to sell historic railroad bonds.

Anil Kumar Gupta, 44, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, securities fraud and three other related charges in U.S. District Court Friday.

Gupta was indicted in May 2001 on 22 counts in connection with the railroad bond scheme. Victims were told by Gupta and his co-conspirators that the bonds were legitimate and there was a market for them, Natalie Collins, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office, said.

Gupta is scheduled to be sentenced May 17.

In 1998 Gupta boasted that his wife, Shruti Misra, had more than $5 billion in precious metals, land and other assets. The couple submitted a bid, which eventually reached $225 million, to buy the Vikings. However, they could not substantiate the claim that they actually had the money to buy the team.

When the Las Vegas Sun reported warehouses capable of storing the $2.4 billion in gold, silver and platinum that the couple claimed to own did not exist in Las Vegas, Gupta said he had "transformed" the metals into rhodium and osmium, which would require a smaller storage space.