securities fraud

EDITOR’S NOTE: The indictment in Delaware against Patrick A. Wiley of Detroit illustrates the dangers of entrusting money to a person who claims he can help you recover money lost in a securities swindle. It also illustrates that a person who claims he can help you recover money lost to a securities swindle — and [...]

Perhaps he’ll be remembered best for his collection of Steiff teddy bears paid for by investors, but there now are other reasons to remember Paul Greenwood. Greenwood has pleaded guilty to swindling institutional investors, universities and pension funds in a Ponzi-like scheme. He is believed to be cooperating with prosecutors in the ongoing probe of [...]

Charges against a Florida man accused of running a Ponzi scheme through a bogus wholesale grocery business known as Capitol Investments USA Inc. have been upgraded, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman of the District of New Jersey said. Nevin J. Shapiro, 41, of Miami Beach, originally was charged via criminal complaint in April with one [...]

EDITOR’S NOTE: Here’s one for your Bubba Blue notebook on the various ways to have a Ponzi scheme, as opposed to shrimp. UPDATED 5:50 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A Miami man has been charged by the SEC with gathering $40 million in a Ponzi scheme, pocketing $6 million for himself and telling investors they were helping [...]

BULLETIN: Nevin K. Shapiro, the founder and president of Capitol Investments USA Inc., surrendered to authorities this morning after being charged both criminally and civilly in an alleged $900 million Ponzi and fraud scheme in south Florida and elsewhere, the SEC said. Shapiro, 41, is a prominent Miami Beach businessman and philanthropist in the wholesale [...]

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 [...]

A Texas jury has thrown the book at Edward S. Digges Jr., sentencing the Collin County man to 99 years in prison for fleecing 130 investors in a securities-fraud and Ponzi scheme. Digges, 63, formerly was an attorney in Annapolis, Md. He was disbarred in an overbilling scheme, convicted of mail fraud in 1990 and [...]

BULLETIN: Convicted Ponzi swindler Jeffrey Gordon Butler has been sentenced to 90 years and eight months in a California state prison. Butler, 51, of San Juan Capistrano, Calif., was convicted in June 2009 of 693 felony counts, including making untrue statements of material fact in the offer and sale of securities, the offer and sale [...]

And to think that only months ago — in February 2009 — various members of AdSurfDaily wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee trying to elicit support for Ponzi schemes. The letter-writing campaign was spearheaded by “Professor” Patrick Moriarty and pushed by the Pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum. But now the FBI has told the committee, led [...]

Gerard Frank Cellette Jr. was implicated by prosecutors in an alleged $53 million Ponzi scheme in Minnesota last month. Cellette, 44, of Andover, Minn., asked a judge to jail him yesterday — and the judge granted his wish. Cellette now is Inmate No. 2009034708 in the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Jail. He was charged Nov. 5 [...]

Think the Feds are the only thing to worry about if you’re in the Ponzi scheme business? Think again. In yet another prosecution that demonstrates Ponzi schemers have more to fear than federal agencies such as the SEC, the CFTC, the FBI, the Secret Service, the IRS and the Postal Inspection Service, a Colorado man [...]

First the SEC sued fund manager Joseph Forte, accusing him of running a Ponzi scheme that fleeced investors out of tens of millions of dollars. Now Forte has been charged criminally with mail fraud. Authorities said his victims included a church, a charity and a private school. The SEC sued Forte, 53, of Broomall, Pa., [...]

“We are seeing an uptick in Ponzi scheme cases because, in this economic climate, new investors cannot be found to perpetuate the scheme. As these schemes collapse, the CFTC will move swiftly to prosecute those who harm innocent investors.” – Stephen J. Obie, CFTC “Run the other way” if someone promises you exorbitant investment returns, [...]

BLOG UPDATE 12:44 P.M. EST (USA): The U.S. Marshals Service has issued an updated statement on the capture of Marcus Schrenker. It is reproduced at the bottom of this post. Here, directly below, is our initial post . . . Authorities said they believed Indiana investment adviser Marcus Schrenker staged the crash of his Piper [...]