DONATION-BUTTON POST: A Word Of Thanks And A Word Of Remembrance As The PP Blog And Its Author Continue To Face Challenge Of Keeping Publication Online

Dear Readers,

Another new month is approaching. There are bills to pay — and the usual lack of funds to pay them.

As I noted in July, I am passing the hat reluctantly — but pass it I must.

These posts always are the hardest to write. Although the Blog is highly relevant in the lives of its readers, it barely made it last month. Day after day, Ponzi scheme victims read the Blog to see if there is anything new about their cases. Media outlets visit the Blog, as do researchers, attorneys, financial institutions and law-enforcement agencies.

Scammers don’t like the Blog, of course. Neither does a person who calls himself “Mr. Protector.” The Blog has been on the receiving end of hostility, passive-aggressive posturing and, from time to time, delusional rants. I’m not entirely certain if the level of willful blindness and voluntary obtuseness in the world ever has been higher.

A Remembrance

A person sent me an email today and asked me to call. I am acquainted with this person, and I returned the call quickly. The news that came out of the other end of the line was a pure joy to hear. It made me emotional instantly for a couple of reasons: First, the person was thrilled that justice was taking shape in a particular Ponzi scheme and that victims had a reason for hope. Second, the person commented that the Blog has been an important part of her life.

This is what makes the struggles worthwhile.

Today’s events reminded me of something that happened in May 2001, more than 10 years ago now. Since about the middle of April of that year, I’d been covering a  flood of inexplicable foreclosures for a newspaper. I met with the editors each morning and wrote about two stories a day for the next six weeks, poring through documents and visiting the homes of lots of people in foreclosure.

I told their stories. And their stories were supplemented by stories about the impossible mathematics of the situation. Not much seemed to be happening on the law-enforcement front.

But on that day in late May something did happen: The government filed suit in state court. I obtained a copy of the lawsuit and headed for the office of a man who’d been helping me crunch the numbers — much to the dismay of some of his colleagues in the real-estate trade. They apparently believed it was better to say nothing than to have law enforcement looking under rocks to determine why widows were losing their homes.

By the time I left the man’s office, tears were welling in his eyes. He’d been trying unsuccessfully to get somebody to do something for two years. Somebody finally did do something on that day in late May of 2001.

As the summer progressed, more people did more things. The Feds got involved. It was the first forfeiture case I ever wrote about: cash and a Rolls-Royce.

So, I’d like to thank the reader who contacted me today for her readership and warm thoughts. But most of all I’d  like to thank her for making me remember that day from more than a decade ago, the pure joy that surfaced on the faces of the victims. That day represented the beginnings of justice for hundreds of people and will remain with me forever — as will this one.

Patrick