CFTC

UPDATED 7:11 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) When U.S. District Judge James Rosenbaum sentenced Ponzi schemer Trevor Cook to a quarter of a century in federal prison earlier this week, the judge used some powerful words to describe Cook’s colossal fraud. Rosenbaum described the scheme that bilked investors out of at least $158 million as “wretched, tawdry [...]

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 [...]

A church pastor targeted congregants in a Forex Ponzi scheme in which he misappropriated at least $462,000, the CFTC said. The pastor, Jeremiah C. Yancy, previously had been implicated by Idaho regulators in a real-estate swindle and scheme to sell unregistered securities that resulted in ruinous losses for investors, according to records. Yancy also is [...]

Trevor Cook’s brother was hiding more than $400,000 in cash and valuables from a $190 million Ponzi scheme, according to an extraordinary statement by the court-appointed receiver in the case. The loot was found July 23 — after Trevor Cook, whose plea agreement in the case required him to submit to a lie-detector test if [...]

Investors turned over more than $30 million to a felon who hid his conviction and even managed to persuade clients to give him power of attorney, the CFTC said. Robert Mihailovich Sr. was released from federal prison on June 27, 2007, after serving 21 months for mail fraud, the CFTC said. On Oct. 14, 2008 [...]

EDITOR’S NOTE: R.J. Zayed, the court-appointed receiver in the Ponzi and Forex fraud case brought by the SEC and CFTC against Trevor Cook and Pat Kiley, has said many investors were made destitute by the scheme. Not all investors lost their money, however. Yesterday Zayed filed petitions to claw back millions of dollars in “preferential [...]

BULLETIN: Pedro de Sousa and Guillermo Rosario of FX Professional International Solutions Inc. (FXP) have been arrested by the FBI. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said the men operated a Forex fraud that issued false account statements, falsely claimed no losing months between 2005 and 2008 when they had lost money in 31 of [...]

A Florida company — Trade-LLC — and its operators have been accused of running a $28 million Ponzi scheme that fleeced members of three investment clubs. Named defendants by the SEC were Trade-LLC and its managing members, Philip W. Milton and William Center. The scam operated in the Palm Beach Gardens area, and affected more [...]

In yet another sign that U.S. policy is to turn up the heat on Ponzi and HYIP purveyors, the head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division announced the guilty plea of a Texas man accused both criminally and civilly of running a Forex HYIP and Ponzi scheme. Ray M. White, 51, of Mansfield, faces up [...]

UPDATED 10:17 A.M. EDT (May 25, U.S.A.) It has been another nasty day for the HYIP and autosurf “industries” and their apologists. Investigators have charged two Mexican nationals with operating a Ponzi scheme on U.S. soil. The alleged scheme, which used names such as New Golden Investment Group LLC (NGI), NGI Group LLC, New Golden [...]

Calling it an “unprecedented partnership” brought about by a financial-fraud problem that is national in scope, federal and state officials today announced the creation of the Virginia Financial and Securities Fraud Task Force. The Virginia Task Force, which is part of President Obama’s interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, brings together criminal investigators and civil [...]

EDITOR’S NOTE: Some of the investors in the Trevor Cook/Pat Kiley Ponzi scheme in Minnesota say they believe Cook is lying to investigators about the whereabouts of assets and perhaps other elements of the probe. “We do not believe this much money could be totally lost in such a short period of time,” an investor [...]

Michael Derrick Peninger was captured yesterday, nine days after he failed to show up for sentencing court in a South Carolina Ponzi scheme case. Authorities said he cut the transmitter on an electronic monitoring device he was ordered to wear prior to fleeing April 12. A federal magistrate judge jailed Peninger yesterday after he was [...]

EDITOR’S NOTE: There was significant action in Ponzi cases today. Earlier we reported on the guilty plea of Trevor Cook in Minnesota and the issuance of a bench warrant in South Carolina for Michael Derrick Peninger. The brief below summarizes action in the Ponzi and affinity-fraud case case of Steven Byers in New York, the [...]

UPDATED 5:45 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A federal judge has issued a bench warrant for Michael Derrick Peninger after Peninger did not show up for sentencing yesterday in a $7 million, Ponzi-scheme case in South Carolina. Peninger, 50, of Charleston, was convicted in October of eight counts of mail fraud and one count of making a [...]

BULLETIN: (UPDATED 12:35 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Trevor G. Cook, implicated in a $190 million Ponzi scheme that pushed tremendous sums of money all over the world and is believed to have fleeced investors out of at least $139 million, has entered a guilty plea in federal court in Minnesota. No sentencing date has been sent. [...]

EDITOR’S NOTE: As is the case with other Ponzi schemes, the alleged Trevor Cook/Pat Kiley scheme in Minnesota is proving to be an incredible paper chase that is consuming hundreds of hours of manpower as attorneys, investigators and support staff work to reverse-engineer what authorities say was an epic, international fraud. Want to be a [...]

A grand jury has returned an indictment against a suburban Philadelphia man, accusing him of operating a Ponzi scheme that gathered at least $95 million and fleeced investors of more than $25 million. Charged criminally with mail fraud and money-laundering was Donald Anthony Young, who also has been sued by the SEC. Meanwhile, Matthew Pizzolato [...]

A federal judge has ordered a Florida man to spend nearly 16 years in prison and pay $16.7 million in restitution for fleecing investors in a Ponzi scheme. Sean Healy, 39, of Weston, scammed dozens of investors in Pennsylvania. He went on to live in the lap of luxury in Florida, acquiring a $2.4 million [...]