FBI

Welcome to the rapidly evolving world of Planet Fraud, U.S. Region — or, more precisely, the U.S. Region of Planet Cyberfraud, the electronic web of deceit that often exists out of view and is sucking wealth at an alarming pace.
Its capitals last year, according to a new report from The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), [...]

UPDATED 10:40 A.M. ET (U.S.A.) Federal and state agents have raided the Minneapolis offices of Inter-Mark Corp., seeking evidence of a Ponzi scheme, the Star Tribune of Minneapolis/St. Paul is reporting.
Inter-Mark Corp. is operated by Steve Renner, who also operates a purported “advertising” service known as INetGlobal. In a scene that resembled the August 2008 raid [...]

A Florida man implicated in a pump-and-dump scheme tied to a Ponzi- and affinity-fraud scheme has been convicted and faces decades in federal prison.
Michael J. Muzio, 46, of Tampa, was convicted on six counts of securities fraud, two counts of substantive wire fraud, two counts of lying to the SEC and the FBI and [...]

UPDATED 12:54 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) An airplane reported to be “small” has crashed into a seven-story building in Austin, the state capital of Texas.
NBC affiliate KXAN is reporting that at least two people have been injured, that the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are on the scene, and that an [...]

A Cleveland attorney with ties to Texas and Florida has been indicted for failure to appear at his trial in a Ponzi scheme case, federal prosecutors said.
Dale P. Zucker, a medical-malpractice and personal-injury attorney who practiced in Cleveland and Chagrin Falls, was indicted in August 2009 for mail fraud and filing false tax returns. The [...]

Two days ago, we wrote about FindThatCar.org, a website with a red banner at the top that appeals to visitors to “Help us,” as though it were promoting a charity such as the Red Cross.
FindThatCar.org actually is promoting Narc That Car, a Dallas-based multilevel-marketing  (MLM) company that is building a database to sell information to [...]

UPDATED 5:23 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) A California man has been arrested by the FBI and IRS criminal investigators in an alleged Ponzi scheme involving $12 million.
Peter Jerald Frommer was taken into custody this morning, after a federal grand jury returned a 17-count indictment yesterday.
Frommer, 34, formerly of Malibu, was charged with two counts of mail [...]

UPDATED 2:46 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) And to think a cheerleader for AdSurfDaily once boasted online that Megalido was “offshore” and therefore safe from government meddling, after earlier suggesting that ASD members who did not support the company after Ponzi allegations surfaced perhaps would get dragged off in handcuffs while supporters remained free.
To further chill ASD [...]

Disbarred Florida attorney Scott Rothstein has pleaded guilty to a racketeering conspiracy that included mail fraud and wire fraud, and to two separate counts of wire fraud.
“Today’s guilty plea is an important step in bringing to justice those who perpetrated a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme under the guise of operating a legitimate law firm,” said [...]

On a day a federal judge ordered alleged Minnesota Ponzi schemer Trevor Cook jailed — in part for not turning over a two-passenger submarine allegedly purchased on eBay with Ponzi proceeds — the following things happened:

A would-be PP Blog poster attempted to post the same news release about AdSurfDaily mainstay “Professor” Patrick Moriarty in 10 [...]

In yet another case in which the name of a precious metal or mineral was used in a Ponzi scheme, Milton Retana has been found guilty of six counts of mail fraud and one count of lying to federal investigators.
Evidence of the fraud was hidden in the back of a religious bookstore operated by Retana’s [...]

Federal agents and airport police have arrested a man suspected of operating a Ponzi scheme and fleecing investors in a fraudulent Google stock offering, the FBI said.
Tarakeswar “Tarak” Chaudhary, 49, of Tustin, Calif., was arrested last month at San Francisco International Airport after he boarded an Emirates Airlines flight bound for an “overseas” destination, the [...]

A California man who tried to adopt the identity of a deceased classmate from his school days to flee the United States while his Ponzi scheme was unraveling has been sentenced to 159 months in federal prison.
The FBI and the State Department already were aware that John Anthony Miller’s scheme was falling apart when they [...]

After Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme was exposed in December 2008, Beverly Hills hedge-fund manager Bradley L. Ruderman wrote a letter to clients assuring them them their money was safe and deploring Madoff’s “chicanery,” federal prosecutors in the Central District of California said.
“[S]uch disgraceful practices will never happen under my watch,” Ruderman declared in the letter.
Less [...]

Four California residents have been indicted on charges they targeted the Filipino Community of Greater San Diego in a foreclosure-rescue investment scam prosecutors have dubbed the “Apocalypse Trust” and “Amerisian Trust” scheme.
Edmundo Rubi, one of the defendants, was on federal probation for the infamous “Knights Express” Ponzi scheme that fleeced Filipino investors out of $24 [...]

Ka-boom! A federal judge has frozen the assets of alleged Ponzi schemer Richard Elkinson, accused of fleecing investors in Massachusetts by telling them he brokered deals for government uniforms and uniforms worn by Olympic athletes.
Meanwhile, the attorney general of the United States ventured to Florida today and gave a dramatic speech at the Forum Club [...]

If this were Forrest Gump and the subject were Ponzi schemes instead of shrimp, Benjamin Buford “Bubba” Blue might say something along these lines:
There are ‘advertising’ Ponzi schemes, ‘printing’ Ponzi schemes, CD Ponzi schemes, ‘billboard’ Ponzi schemes, Ponzi schemes claiming that ‘uniforms’ are being purchased for prisons and police agencies, ‘Big-Box Retailer’ Ponzi schemes, real-estate [...]

A Massachusetts man has been arrested in Mississippi and charged with orchestrating a $29 million Ponzi scheme by tricking people into believing they were investing in a company that provided uniforms for the Winter Olympics, the Pan American games and the government.
Ironically, Richard Elkinson told investors he provided prison uniforms — and also uniforms for [...]

A Louisiania man charged criminally in an alleged Ponzi scheme and sued civilly on the same day last month lied to investors, some of whom liquidated retirement savings and annuities only to suffer massive losses by entrusting funds to Matthew B. Pizzolato, a federal judge has ruled.
The case against Pizzolato is proceeding on separate tracks: [...]