DEVELOPING STORY: Family Of Alleged Ponzi Schemer In Canada Targeted With Death Threats; Bullets Fired At Home

Just how far will people go to avoid getting caught or convicted of operating a Ponzi scheme or to reclaim funds lost in a Ponzi scheme — or to send a message that designed to rattle nerves?

There have been several recent Ponzi or financial-fraud cases with more than just a hint of violent intent.

Implicated in a massive Ponzi scheme, disbarred Florida attorney surrounded himself with body guards prior to getting charged with racketeering, authorities said. Guns were pulled on multiple occasions, according to media accounts.

Accused Ponzi schemer Jeffrey Lane Mowen is jailed in Utah amid allegations he sought to hire a fellow inmate to kill four witnesses in the case against him. Meanwhile, the FBI said last year that four individuals staged what effectively was the business equivalent of a coup d’état in California, wielding firearms and posing as federal agents to retrieve money purportedly lost in the alleged Kenneth Kenitzer/Anthony Vassallo Ponzi scheme at Equity Investment Management and Trading Inc.

Last month, fleeced Texas investor Christine Cayton was arrested in Texas on charges that she brought a gun to the headquarters of Triton Financial LLC — implicated in an investment-fraud scheme by the SEC — and demanded a refund from Triton principal Kurt B. Barton

Now comes word that bullets were fired in Canada at the home of family members of Tzvi Erez, accused of operating a “printing” Ponzi scheme that gathered $27 million. A school that youngsters in the Erez family attend added security after it received a threatening letter.

Read the Erez story in the National Post.