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Tag: Robin Carnahan

  • Missouri Orders Alleged HYIP Operated By Christopher Hanson To Cease And Desist; Scheme Reached Into North Carolina, State Alleges; Tough Economic Times Give Scammers Opportunity To ‘Pull Schemes Directly From The Pages Of The Fraud Playbook,’ Official Says

    Missouri Sectetary of State Robin Carnahan

    UPDATED 10:52 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Christopher Hanson of Springfield, Mo., has been ordered to “cease and desist” from offering an HYIP “featuring supposed ‘leveraging’ on U.S. Treasuries,” the office of Secretary of State Robin Carnahan announced.

    Missouri state securities regulators described the scheme as a hybrid that married Hanson’s HYIP to a prime-bank scheme.

    “In tough economic times, everyone is looking for ways to make money, which gives fraudsters ample opportunities to pull schemes directly from the pages of the fraud playbook,” Carnahan said.

    Regulators at both the state and federal level have issued repeated warnings about HYIP and prime-bank swindles. Walter Clarence Busby Jr., a figure in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme in 2008 and a companion fraud scheme known as Golden Panda Ad Builder, was implicated by the SEC in three prime-bank swindles in the 1990s.

    “The cease-and desist-order alleges that Hanson sold unregistered securities and committed securities fraud by failing to disclose material information to investors,” Carnahan’s office said.  “According to the order, Hanson assured investors that their investments were risk free or ‘safe’ and were backed by a U.S. Treasury program. Hanson promised investors that they would quickly receive high rates of return on their investments, some in as little as 24 hours. To date, investors have not received any return on their investments.”

    Hanson, according to the state’s order, is a former insurance salesman who was fired in 2005 “for failure to disclose reportable events on a Uniform Application for Securities Industry Registration Form . . . and failure to fully cooperate with a regulatory inquiry and internal requests for information.”

    By 2011, Hanson was in the HYIP business, according to Missouri state investigators — at least one of whom was corresponding with a Hanson investor in New York, according to the state.

    The New York investor, according to Missouri investigators, “was referred to Hanson through an attorney in North Carolina.”

    Also named in the order are Hanson Holdings LLC of Springfield and IBS Investments LLC, also of Springfield.

    Read the Missouri order for additional details.

    North Carolina recently was rocked by the collapse of Zeek Rewards, which the SEC described as a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme.

  • Missouri Investigators Say Senior Citizens — Ages 91, 88 And 79 — Among Victims Swindled By Unregistered Dealer In Fraud Scheme That Diverted Money To ‘Hooters’ Waitresses

    Three senior citizens — including a 91-year-old Pennsylvania resident and 88- and 79-year-old  residents of Missouri — were fleeced in an investment scheme in which $10,000 was diverted to “three waitresses at a Hooters restaurant and one clerk at another retail establishment,” Missouri investigators said.

    All in all, the long-running scheme fetched at least $948,000, affected at least 12 investors and may result in losses of $724,000, the office of Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan said.

    Named in a cease-and-desist order was Richard Joseph Gumerman, an engineer apparently doubling as an unauthorized securities dealer and commodities trader in Independence, Mo.

    “Before trusting someone with their savings, Missourians should check out the legitimacy of both the investment and the person offering it,” Carnahan said. “One phone call to the Securities Division could potentially protect a lifetime’s worth of savings.”

    Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan

    Independence is famed as the boyhood home of President Harry Truman, who returned to the community after leaving the White House in 1953. The Harry S. Truman [Presidential] Library and Museum is situated in the city of about 116,000 residents.

    At least two of the seniors who invested with Gumerman are Independence residents, according to the cease-and-desist order.

    One of the residents — the 88-year-old — invested $329,000 with Gumerman between January 2002 and November 2009, according to the order.

    In February 2011, according to the order, the investor requested $50,000 from the investment, but Gumerman did not send the money.

    When interviewed by investigators, the 88-year-old said that Gumerman “kept stalling” when asked for an investment redemption, according to the order.

    Gumerman did business as Gumerman Trading Co. (GTC) at an address in Lees Summit, Mo., according to the order.

    “[I]n the last several years Gumerman stated that he ‘borrowed’ several hundred thousand dollars from the GTC Bank Account,” regulators alleged in the order.

    The funds that made their way to the Hooters waitresses originated in the GTC account, according to the order.

  • FLASH: Missouri Regulators Say Pet-Food Firm Sold Unregistered Securities In State And Now Is Raising Funds In California Under Different Name To Pay Back Investors

    FLASH: In a complicated case unfolding in Missouri, regulators say pet-food firms operated by Frank Renick sold unregistered securities in the state under one set of names and that Renick is raising funds under a different corporate name through a California “cloud” office to pay back investors.

    Renick’s actual presence in California was a virtual office that provided voicemail service, a California phone number and a California street address from which mail was forwarded to Renick in Missouri, investigators said.

    Missouri has issued a cease-and-desist order through the the state’s Securities Division against Spectrum Pet Care Inc., Spectrum Pet Foods Inc. and SPC Brands Inc., amid claims that the firms have sold more than $6 million in “unregistered stocks and bonds” in part by trading on the names of famous companies.

    The announcement was made by Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, who oversees the Securities Division.

    “My office will continue to go after everyone who misleads Missourians into investing with them,” Carnahan said.

    Regulators increasingly have been confronting securities schemes in which unregistered firms and individuals assert ties to famous brands to establish the veneer of success and lull investors into a false sense of security. Renick’s ties with certain famous companies were theoretical, minor or nonexistent, according to records.

    Over time, according to investigators, the scheme got ported to California, and newspaper ads promoting a “guaranteed annual dividend” of 8.75 percent appeared as recently as last month.

    Robin Carnahan, Missouri Secretary of State.

    “The order alleges that Renick is currently attempting to raise funds in the State of California under the business name Consolidated Food Group, Inc., in order to pay back those individuals who invested in Spectrum,” Carnahan’s office said.

    Consolidated Food Group, which organized in California for business on Dec. 30, 2010, with Renick as its president,  used an address in Carlsbad, according to records. Renick’s address is in New Florence, Mo., and the Spectrum entities use an address in Montgomery City, Mo.

    Spectrum asserted it was “going public” and that its stock value would “double,” but Renick did not “disclose to investors that Spectrum had little revenue,” investigators said.

    “Renick also allegedly used his investors’ funds to pay off previous investors and to pay personal expenses,” investigators said.

    Among the victims is a 74-year-old resident of Kansas City who gave Renick $20,000 after seeing a newspaper ad and listening to a Rennick pitch, investigators said.

    Separately, a 62-year-old St. Louis resident gave Renick $45,000, investigators said.

    “Renick told the investor that Spectrum was going to merge with an international pet food and candy manufacturer, that he had meetings set up with a billion-dollar agriculture and home improvement retailer, and a worldwide convenience store chain contacted Renick about putting Spectrum products in 3,300 stores,” investigators said.  “Securities Division investigators contacted the agriculture retailer, which said Renick scheduled a meeting but didn’t show up, and the convenience store chain, which said that the company hadn’t placed Spectrum products in its stores and never agreed to do so.”

    Read the cease-and-desist order.

  • Missouri Man Banned From Investment Trade After Secretary Of State’s Office Discovers He Sold Unregistered Securities Of ‘Time-Share’ Resort To Senior Citizens In Their Eighties

    Missouri Sectetary of State Robin Carnahan

    A Missouri man who worked for a legitimate investment business near St. Louis sold unregistered securities in a Wisconsin-based, time-share “resort” business to elderly clients, Missouri officials said.

    The securities came in the form of “unregistered real estate investments,” the officials said.

    James McClellan Jr., of Chesterfield, never told 18 Missouri investors — at least six of whom were in their eighties — that the time-share business was experiencing financial difficulties and that the investments were not offered through his employer.

    McClellan was a managing member of the out-of-state time-share business, the state charged. Officials identified the business as Meadow Ridge of Door County LLC, of Egg Harbor, Wisc.

    McClellan now has been banned from the securities business by the state and assessed a penalty of $120,000. His former employer, Huntleigh Securities Corp., also was assessed a penalty of $120,000 for failure to supervise McClellan, who conducted “off the books” securities transactions, the state said.

    “It is unacceptable for financial professionals to misuse their clients’ trust,” Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan said. “My office made sure that this broker won’t be able to work in the industry in Missouri again and that his employer knows how to better supervise its employees.

    Carnahan’s office called McClellan’s deal a “shady real estate scheme” into which investors had plowed more than $4.4 million.