Missouri Investigators Say Senior Citizens — Ages 91, 88 And 79 — Among Victims Swindled By Unregistered Dealer In Fraud Scheme That Diverted Money To ‘Hooters’ Waitresses

Three senior citizens — including a 91-year-old Pennsylvania resident and 88- and 79-year-old  residents of Missouri — were fleeced in an investment scheme in which $10,000 was diverted to “three waitresses at a Hooters restaurant and one clerk at another retail establishment,” Missouri investigators said.

All in all, the long-running scheme fetched at least $948,000, affected at least 12 investors and may result in losses of $724,000, the office of Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan said.

Named in a cease-and-desist order was Richard Joseph Gumerman, an engineer apparently doubling as an unauthorized securities dealer and commodities trader in Independence, Mo.

“Before trusting someone with their savings, Missourians should check out the legitimacy of both the investment and the person offering it,” Carnahan said. “One phone call to the Securities Division could potentially protect a lifetime’s worth of savings.”

Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan

Independence is famed as the boyhood home of President Harry Truman, who returned to the community after leaving the White House in 1953. The Harry S. Truman [Presidential] Library and Museum is situated in the city of about 116,000 residents.

At least two of the seniors who invested with Gumerman are Independence residents, according to the cease-and-desist order.

One of the residents — the 88-year-old — invested $329,000 with Gumerman between January 2002 and November 2009, according to the order.

In February 2011, according to the order, the investor requested $50,000 from the investment, but Gumerman did not send the money.

When interviewed by investigators, the 88-year-old said that Gumerman “kept stalling” when asked for an investment redemption, according to the order.

Gumerman did business as Gumerman Trading Co. (GTC) at an address in Lees Summit, Mo., according to the order.

“[I]n the last several years Gumerman stated that he ‘borrowed’ several hundred thousand dollars from the GTC Bank Account,” regulators alleged in the order.

The funds that made their way to the Hooters waitresses originated in the GTC account, according to the order.

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2 Responses to “Missouri Investigators Say Senior Citizens — Ages 91, 88 And 79 — Among Victims Swindled By Unregistered Dealer In Fraud Scheme That Diverted Money To ‘Hooters’ Waitresses”

  1. http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/04/3352216/state-orders-lees-summit-investment.html

    Richard Joseph Gumerman told state officials he had “borrowed” money from the fund, in part to pay Hooters waitresses and make car and rent payments, according to a cease and desist order signed by Missouri securities commissioner Matthew Kitzi.

  2. That’s “Theft by Distraction”. LOL