PatrickPretty.com: PatrickPretty.com: Covering Ponzi Schemes, pyramid schemes, securities fraud, investment fraud and Internet crime.

BULLETIN: (UPDATED 11:27 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The Federal Trade Commission has lowered the boom on Clean Credit Report Services Inc. of Florida and three individuals associated with the firm. In a settlement from a case brought in October 2008, the FTC has obtained a judgment of $14.4 million. The defendants must surrender their assets, including [...]

BULLETIN: (UPDATED 9:32 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) William L. Walters has been extradited to the United States from Argentina to face Ponzi scheme charges in Colorado, prosecutors announced. “This extradition is the culmination of years of work and cooperation between my office and the FBI,” said Colorado Attorney General John Suthers. “In this case, justice delayed [...]

Dennis Bolze, a fraudster who silently bolted from Tennessee during the same month Bernard Madoff provided a glimpse of how a shocked nation would come to view Ponzi schemers, has been sentenced to 327 months in federal prison. Bolze, 61, was arrested in Pennsylvania on March 12, 2009, about three months after news of Madoff’s [...]

EDITOR’S NOTE: If you’re keeping a Bubba Blue notebook on how to have a Ponzi scheme — as opposed to shrimp — here’s one for your list. A producer of “B-movies” such as “Confessions of a Pit Fighter” scammed investors in a $9 million Ponzi scheme by accepting “movie production loans” and promising returns of [...]

BULLETIN: Ponzi schemer Trevor Cook has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for his role in an international Forex Ponzi scheme that gathered more than $190 million and fleeced victims out of more than $158 million. In ordering the prison term, U.S. District Judge James Rosenbaum sided with the prosecution’s recommendation of a [...]

Many of our readers know that the PP Blog has been subjected to threats, menacing behavior and cyberstalking. Later tonight, we’ll publish an editorial on a highly disturbing incident that occurred last week at the Warrior Forum (WF). The Salty Droid, a Blog that unapologetically skewers highly questionable Internet Marketing practices and some of the [...]

BULLETIN: A citizen of Jamaica has been charged by U.S. prosecutors in Orlando with operating a Forex Ponzi scheme alleged to have gathered more than $200 million from more than 6,000 investors. David A. Smith had help from unindicted co-conspirators in Florida, prosecutors charged. The office of U.S. Attorney A. Brian Albritton of the Middle [...]

A Virginia man who traded on religious sentiments and the motto printed on U.S. currency to fleece investors in a $17 million Ponzi and securities swindle potentially faces decades in prison after being found guilty in Maryland of wire-fraud and money-laundering charges. Byron Keith Brown bought at least 16 luxury or high-performance cars with investors’ [...]

Growing up a child of Andy Bowdoin and advancing through adolescence and adulthood was hard because of Bowdoin’s habitual scheming, according to Scott Bowdoin, Andy Bowdoin’s son. “He uses religion — always,” Scott Bowdoin, 42, said flatly of his 75-year-old father, noting he had not spoken to Andy Bowdoin in about 15 years because the [...]