If It sounds to good to be true.......

A Dutch man has pleaded guilty to swindling wealthy New Yorkers by promising them an inside shot at getting shares in the Internet search engine Google and to spending $350,000 of their money in a three-month spree of opulent hotels, restaurants and gambling.

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The defendant, Shamoon Rafiq, could be sentenced to more than five years in prison for wire fraud under the plea agreement reached with prosecutors on Monday.

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Rafiq, who was in New York working as a business development manager for BT Group, the British telecommunications company, claimed in meetings with investors that he was able to obtain Google "preferred stock" - available to founders' friends and families at $12 a share ahead of the company's planned initial public offering.

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At least five investors, including a lawyer for a European telecommunications company, an investment banker, a senior brokerage executive and the chairman of a global telecommunications firm, wired $500,000 to Rafiq, who claimed to be a venture capitalist and a friend of Google's founders from their university days.

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The scheme unraveled when the investment banker grew suspicious and demanded his money back. The FBI arrested Rafiq in March in New York.

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The law-enforcement authorities said Rafiq had spent much of the money on a lavish lifestyle, including New York nightclubs, strippers, $100 tips for restaurant and hotel employees and expensive watches for friends.

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Prosecutors are opposing Rafiq's request to serve his sentence in the Netherlands under terms of a treaty governing Dutch citizens convicted in the United States.

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Google, based in Mountain View, California, announced plans for its initial public offering last month, aiming to raise $2.7 billion with an offering expected to give it a market value of at least $20 billion.