Raymond Frank Joseph Convicted On All 36 Counts In Michigan Ponzi Scheme; Federal Judge Revokes Bond
Federal prosecutors have scored another dramatic win in a Ponzi scheme case.
Raymond Frank Joseph, 55, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., was convicted of three counts of wire fraud, nine counts of interstate transportation of stolen money or property and 24 counts of conducting monetary transactions in criminally derived property.
Judge Gerald E. Rosen immediately revoked Joseph’s bond after a federal jury returned guilty verdicts on all 36 counts. Joseph was ordered detained, pending sentencing next year.
“Investors or lenders should be wary of unreasonably high promises of massive profits,” said U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg of the Eastern District of Michigan. “Ponzi schemes prey on the expectations of big returns, and use the next person’s money to pay previous investors. In this case, the jury saw through the defendant’s fraudulent scheme.â€
Prosecutors said Joseph fleeced $5 million in the scheme.
“Joseph solicited loans of money from several individuals to invest in a number of business ventures,” prosecutors said. “To induce the lenders to give him their money, Joseph fraudulently promised the victims a specific date of repayment with interest resulting from his claimed business investment of the money.”
But Joseph did not invest the the money, prosecutors said. Instead, he used it to make payments to earlier investors and to pay his personal expenses such as credit card bills, household expenditures and vehicle costs.
A veteran IRS criminal investigator said investors have a duty to be cautious.
“Although the economics of Ponzi schemes are simple, today’s swindlers artfully conceal their greed with sophisticated marketing and numerous misrepresentations,” said Maurice Aouate, special-agent-in-charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division.
“Beware, for if is sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” Aouate said.
The FBI also had a leading role in the Joseph probe.
“Investors generally understand that there’s a correlation between risk and reward, and Ponzi scheme cases like this one reinforce the fact that investing money is inherently risky,” said Andrew Arena, FBI special-agent-in-charge.
“Before handing hard-earned money to investors, individuals should know who they are dealing with and how their money will be invested,” Arena said. “In light of recent large scale Ponzi schemes, public awareness is at the forefront. The FBI and its partners will aggressively investigate people who swindle money from others, whether it involves hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars.”
Joseph potentially faces decades in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for March.
Hopefully, the next similar article will be about Andy Bowdoin being convicted on all counts!!!