FBI Says It Has Opened 291 New HYIP Cases And Has 780 Pending Cases Of High-Yield Fraud; Many Have ‘International Nexus,’ Agency Notes

FILE: Kevin Perkins appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2009. He appeared again today.

How confident are you that the HYIP you’re flogging on the Ponzi boards isn’t already under investigation by any of a number of state or federal agencies?

Court records show that the alleged Legisi HYIP Ponzi scheme (about $70 million) was under investigation by state and federal law-enforcement agencies even as promoters were pitching it. The same is true of the alleged AdSurfDaily (ASD) Ponzi scheme (about $100 million).

In Congressional testimony today, Kevin L. Perkins, assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, said the agency has opened 291 “new” HYIP case this fiscal year and has 780 pending cases of high-yield fraud.

“Many of the Ponzi scheme investigations have an international nexus and have affected thousands of victims,” Perkins told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In February 2009, members of the alleged ASD scheme bizarrely asked the very same committee to investigate the prosecutors investigating the scheme — not ASD President Andy Bowdoin, the alleged schemer.

By September 2009, Bowdoin was telling members the $65.8 million the government seized from his 10 personal bank accounts belonged to them — a position that contradicted his own court filings.

Bowdoin told U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer the money belonged to him. The judge later ordered the money forfeited to the government, which is establishing a restitution fund. Bowdoin appealed.