Philip Morrell Wilson (August 6, 1937 – January 15, 2003) was an international conman and swindler. He was best known for operating the fraudulent Bank of Sark. Wilson was born in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

. He started out as a life insurance salesman. From 1968 to 1972 he operated the Bank of Sark in

Guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...

Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...

. (The bank was named for, but not located in, the neighboring island of

Sark Sark (french: link=no, Sercq, ; Sercquiais: or ) is a part of the Channel Islands in the southwestern English Channel, off the coast of Normandy, France. It is a royal fief, which forms part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, with its own set of l ...

.) The bank consisted of a one-room office, a telephone, and a telex machine. He managed to get the bank published in Polk's Bank Directory to lend an air of legitimacy. He used Bahamian accountant Samuel Wilkinson to certify financial statements that showed $72 million in assets, although the bank had almost no assets. At the same time he also operated the First Liberty Fund Ltd. in

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

, a mutual fund, and Trans Continental Casualty Co., an insurance company. He sold worthless bank drafts, letters of credit and certificates of deposit to other conmen, who used them to swindle banks and investors. The fraud netted an estimated $40 million to $70 million. For this fraud, Wilson received a three-year prison sentence and five years probation, and served 1.5 years. He then moved to

Hollywood, Florida Hollywood is a city in southern Broward County, Florida, United States, located between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. As of July 1, 2019, Hollywood had a population of 154,817. Founded in 1925, the city grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s, and is now ...

and started Fraudmasters, Inc., a consulting company on fraud. In 1973 he testified before the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations regarding securities frauds. In 1970, through his Bank of Sark operation involving advance fees, two of Wilson's associates were involved in swindling

New Orleans crime family The New Orleans crime family or New Orlean Mafia was an Italian-American Mafia crime family based in the city of New Orleans. The family had a history of criminal activity dating back to the late nineteenth century. The family reached its height ...

member Santo DiFatta. In an act of revenge using a car bomb, the mafia killed Continental Telephone Corp. president Philip J. Lucier in a case of mistaken identity, instead of their intended target, attorney Theodore F. Schwartz. Wilson was in prison on and off between 1976 and 1983 on charges of fraud, bail jumping, interstate transportation of stolen property and conspiracy. He was then convicted in 1984 of conspiracy to smuggle drugs. In 1988 he was under investigation for his involvement in Omni Capital Corp. in Plantation, Florida, which was an advance fee operation. In 1990 he was charged with and convicted for fraud, racketeering and grand theft for his involvement in the International Investment Trust, which issued worthless certificates, defrauding businesses and a Luxembourg bank. Wilson was also involved in a fraudulent venture capital scheme using bogus letters of credit between 1999 and 2001, but died in January 2003 before he could be arrested.Ex-Stockbroker Gets 15 Years For Fraud Scheme ''The Tampa Tribune'' November 20, 2007
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