Showing posts with label Ponzi Scheme. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ponzi Scheme. Show all posts

Monday, December 7, 2009

Alleged Ponzi Scheme Uncovered in Florida

The Associated Press reports that attorneys sorting through the books of disbarred Florida lawyer Scott Rothstein have uncovered handsome salaries for the disgraced attorney and his partners.

In 2008, Rothstein collected $35 million. Stuart Rosenfeldt, a 50 percent partner, received more than $6 million, and name partner Russell Adler was paid $888,000.

The law firm is now in bankruptcy, and Rothstein faces charges including racketeering and money laundering in what authorities allege was a massive ponzi scheme. Creditors have filed nearly $1.2 billion in claims.

Bankruptcy attorneys say the firm's books are a mess, and it's impossible so far to paint a complete picture.

Rothstein has pleaded not guilty.



Florida Lawyer Charged With Fraud Collected $35M in 2008



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Thursday, December 3, 2009

Tom Petters Found Guilty of $3.65B Ponzi Scheme

Yesterday a Minnesota jury found businessman Tom Petters guilty for his $3.65B ponzi scheme. The Wall Street Journal reports that, Petters guilty sentence contains 20 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering and conspiracy, potentially consigning him to life in prison without parole.

Petters case has been overshadowed by fellow ponzi-schemer, Bernie L. Madoff.

Petters Found Guilty of Fraud



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Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Madoff Accountant Pleads Guilty

As predicted last week Bernie Madoff's accountant, David Friehling, has plead guilty this morning to his involvement in Madoff's ponzi scheme. NBC reports that in addition to securities fraud, Friehling was also charged with investment adviser fraud, making false filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission and obstructing the IRS.

Friehling becomes the second known Madoff associate to cooperate in the investigation. Madoff's right hand man Frank DiPascali pleaded guilty and is hoping for a reduced sentence by helping the FBI track others involved.
DiPascali is behind bars as prosecutors try to convince a judge to let the convicted co-conspirator out on bail so he can more easily assist the investigation.



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Friday, October 30, 2009

Guilty Plea Expected from Madoff's Accountant

Newsday.com reports that Bernard Madoff's former accountant will likely plead guilty on November 3rd to a variety of fraud and other charges in connection with largest Ponzi scheme ever to hit Wall Street, officials said Friday.

In a letter filed in federal court in Manhattan, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lisa Baroni and Marc Litt said that it is expected that David G. Friehling, 49, of upstate New City, will plead guilty Nov. 3 to charges of securities fraud, investment adviser fraud, making false statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and obstructing tax collection laws.

Madoff accountant expected to plead guilty to securities fraud



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Thursday, October 29, 2009

More Money is Being Advanced to Madoff Victims

Looks like progress is slowly being made in Bernie Madoff's $65 billion Ponzi scheme. This article in Bloomberg discusses Madoff's liquidators are making repayments of about $534.2 million to 1,558 victims that suffered losses. There have been over 16,000 claims made since Bernie's arrest back in December, so there is still a long way to go. Irving Picard, a trustee, was able to recover $1.4 billion in assets to repay victims and more is expected back in fake profit from some of Madoff's biggest investors. There will be a lot controversy going forward on who gets paid and who doesn't.



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Monday, October 26, 2009

Madoff Investor Dies in Swimming Pool

A recent article in CNN mentioned that an investor of Madoff's Ponzi scheme recently died in his Florida pool. Jeffry Picower, a 67 year old investor from Florida was found dead in his swimming pool in Palm Beach.

Jeffry's Picower Foundation had announced earlier that it was shutting down because of losses from the Madoff sheme. His recent tax return valued the portfolio at $955 million. There are also allegations that Picower benefited from Madoff's secretive investment business.



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Monday, October 19, 2009

FBI joins $53M fraud investigation

The Detroit News reports today that the FBI has joined the investigation surrounding an alleged $53 million Ponzi scheme, according to documents filed in federal court in Detroit.

Until now, the alleged "Billionaire Boys Club" scheme involving businessmen John J. Bravata of Brighton and Richard J. Trabulsy of Northville has been a civil case, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission pursuing the men and their companies through a civil fraud and securities lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court.

The SEC filed the lawsuit against Bravata, Trabulsy and their companies, BBC Equities and Bravata Financial Group, on July 26. Under the alleged scheme, authorities said, more than 400 investors were promised returns of 8 percent or more while the principals spent millions on luxury homes, boats, jewelry, gambling, exotic vacations and expensive cars.

FBI joins $53M fraud investigation



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Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Ponzi Schemeing, Canadian Style

We're learning that nearly C$400 million ($369 million) from Canadian and international investors has gone missing in Canada's biggest ponzi scheme to date. Bloomberg reports that Allen Brost and Gary Allen Sorenson created Syndicated Gold Depository SA, which agreed to lend money to Merendon Mining Corp., with the promise of tax breaks and high rates of return to investors, police said Sept. 14. Initially, the men were alleged to have bilked more than C$100 million from 1999 to Dec. 31, 2008, from investors in Alberta, Canada.

For more information, please click here.



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Monday, September 28, 2009

Ponzi scheme exposed in Michigan

According to the Wall Street Journal, Frank Bluestein, a Michigan stock broker, ran a Ponzi scheme which convinced elderly individuals to refinance their homes. The Ponzi scheme totaled $250 million, and made $74 million with 800 investors during the five years it was in operation. Read the full story here.



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Thursday, September 3, 2009

Owner of Diamond Ventures Arrested for Wire Fraud and Money Laundering

According to this article in the Herald Tribune Beau Diamond from a Sarasota based Diamond Ventures group was recently charged with money laundering and wire fraud. Officials claim that he operated his venture like a Ponzi scheme, using investors' money to make profit payments to other investors and collecting about $38 million from over 200 people. $6.6 million of those funds were used for personal expenditures including a waterfront condominium, a Lamborghini Gallardo, and vacations. The FBI have been investigating Beau since early January.



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Friday, August 28, 2009

Standford Group's #2 pleads gulity to fraud

According to the Wall Street Journal, James Davis, who was the second highest in the Standford Fraud case, pleaded guilty. He admitted to willingly defrauding investors for nearly twenty years. Davis is cooperating with officials to build a case against Allan Standford, who is currently being held in Conroe, Texas. Read the full article here.



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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Madoff Says He Pulled Off Fraud Scheme Because Feds Weren't Watching

Fox News and the NYPost report that imprisioned fraudster Bernie Madoff said during a 4½-hour interview from behind bars, to San Francisco trial lawyer, Joseph Cotchett yesterday that he got away with his $65 billion scam because regulators weren't paying attention that the feds weren't watching so he was able to pull of his infamous ponzi scheme.

As we continue to see more and more mini-ponzi schemers coming to light; how many others have the feds overlooked?

Madoff Says He Pulled Off Fraud Scheme Because Feds Weren't Watching



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Monday, July 6, 2009

SEC wants to do a better job of looking for fraud

According to the Times Call of Colorado, the SEC had received a tip to instigate Madoff a few years before his ponzi scheme failed. Now, they're trying to find better ways to detect fraud in advance. The article looks at several things they are doing to monitor and detect fraud better.

- The SEC is trying to improve the handling of tips and complaints that they receive
- Improve the examiners abilities to detect fraud and their knowledge of complex financial productions
- Making sure that a third party can verify all assets

What are other things the SEC can do to improve it's detection of fraud?



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Monday, June 29, 2009

Madoff Gets Maximum Sentence for Huge Ponzi Scheme

Jack Healy of The New York Times reports that, a federal judge on Monday turned aside Bernard L. Madoff’s assertions of remorse, calling his investment fraud “extraordinarily evil.” The sentencing came at the end of a 90-minute hearing in which victims of the $65 billion fraud told a packed courtroom that the judge should show no mercy and Mr. Madoff himself stood up from the defense table to acknowledge the damage he had inflicted and express regret.

Madoff's lawyers had asked for only a 12 year sentence, due to the age of Mr. Madoff, claiming that they may only have, statistically, 13 years left to live.

The ruling by judge Denny Chin may feel only like a bandage to the deep wounds that Mr. Madoff has inflicted on his victims.

Madoff Sentenced to 150 Years for Ponzi Scheme



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Friday, June 19, 2009

Texan Ponzi Fraudster Indicted

According to the New York Times, R. Allen Stanford, the Texas billionaire accused of running a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, and at least four others, including an Antiguan official, have been indicted in the fraud case, a federal prosecutor said Friday morning.

In February, the Securities and Exchange Commission shut down Mr. Stanford’s financial operations, while filing a civil suit accusing him and two other senior executives of committing a fraud it characterized as a “massive Ponzi scheme.”

The suspected fraud involved billions of dollars of certificates of deposit issued by Stanford International Bank on Antigua. The instruments paid unusually high returns and were marketed around the world, particularly in the United States and Latin America.


For more information, visit the original article referenced.

Texas Financier, 4 Others Said to Face Indictment



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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Madoff's sons sued

According to the Wall Street Journal, Richard I. Stahl and Reed Abend, two former employees who worked on with Madoff, sued his sons for over $1.7 million. They charge that the sons, Mark and Andrew Madoff, knew about the Ponzi scheme for a long period of time. Read the full article here.



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Friday, April 24, 2009

Cosmo Indicted

As we covered last week, fraudster Nicolas Cosmo was indicted yesterday. Authorities unsealed a 32-count indictment against Cosmo that includes 10 counts of wire fraud and 22 counts of mail fraud. Cosmo claimed Agape solicited investor funds that were used to make short-term bridge loans. Agape received about $413 million from investors, while only about $30 million in loans were made, prosecutors said. According to Bloomberg.com, prosecutors said they are seeking about $413 million in assets which they say are the proceeds of Cosmo’s illegal enterprise, including property on Long Island and accounts in his name at Bank of America Corp.



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Thursday, March 12, 2009

Madoff Charged with 11 Criminal Counts

According to Reuters.com, Bernard Madoff was charged with 11 Criminal Counts during is infamous Ponzi scheme that left thousands of investors penniless and two individuals dead.

The counts that Mr. Madoff faces are as follows:

* Securities fraud, investment adviser fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, false statements, perjury, false filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and theft from an employee benefit plan.

* Madoff's lead attorney told a judge in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday that the money manager is expected to plead guilty on Thursday.

* U.S. prosecutors say there is no plea agreement between Madoff and the government, indicating he is unwilling to admit there was a conspiracy.

* The prosecutors say "the size and scope of Mr. Madoff's fraud are unprecedented" and their investigation is continuing.

* The government says Madoff faces up to 150 years in prison if convicted of all charges.

* The government says Madoff is also subject to mandatory restitution payments, fines and forfeiture of ill-gotten gains. The forfeiture sought by the government is more than $170 billion, a figure that has been challenged by Madoff's lawyers.

* The government says Madoff's investment business had about 4,800 client accounts as of November 30. 2008.

* The investment business issued statements for November 2008 reporting accounts held a total of $64.8 billion. In reality, the business "held only a small fraction" of that balance for clients, according to the government.

* Prosecutors contend the alleged scheme lasted from "at least" the 1980s, and Madoff hired numerous employees "with little or no prior pertinent training or experience in the securities industry" to communicate with his investment clients and "generate false and fraudulent documents."

Mr. Madoff faces live in prison.



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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Mini-Madoffs Get Just Desserts

The New York Times reports today on the large amounts of individuals who have been caught running Ponzi schemes earning the title of mini-Madoffs. According to the article, some of these schemes have been operating for years, and others are far more recent. A deteriorating economy and heightened skepticism about outsize returns after the revelations about Mr. Madoff has broght these cons to light. Read more and share with us your thoughts on the mini-Madoffs.



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Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Joseph Forte charged with mail fraud

Joseph Forte, the operator of a Ponzi scheme, was charged with mail fraud yesterday by the Security and Exchange Commission. He could face up to 20 years in prison.

He operated his Ponzi scheme by the system mailing quarterly investment reports as the primary method for misrepresenting his trade performance to individual investors.

For more information, read the Philadelphia Business Journal.



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