South Carolina Attorney General Alleges Ponzi Scheme And False Statements By Purveyor; U.S. Secret Service Seen Carting Boxes From Purported ‘Precious Metals’ Business
From WSPA: An agent returns inside to cart out another box at the headquarters of Atlantic Bullion and Coin Inc. in Easley, S.C.
UPDATED 7:31 A.M. ET (U.S.A., MARCH 17) State officials in South Carolina say Ronnie Gene Wilson and Atlantic Bullion and Coin Inc. were running a “precious metals” Ponzi scheme that gathered about $70 million from “numerous” investors in 25 states over the past three years.
After dark Thursday, the U.S. Secret Service was seen carting boxes out of the Easley, S.C., office of Atlantic Bullion. The scene was reminiscent of the earliest hours of the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case, which began as a civil probe by the Secret Service in August 2008 and eventually led to criminal charges against ASD President Andy Bowdoin of Quincy, Fla.
Like Bowdoin — once a councilman in Perry, Fla. — Wilson once was a councilman in Anderson County, S.C. The initial filings in the Wilson case suggest that he’d previously been on the radar of law enforcement for a scheme in the 1990s that led to a cease-and-desist order. Bowdoin also was implicated in a securities scheme in the 1990s, according to records.
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson has filed a civil complaint in the Richland County Court of Common Pleas against Ronnie Gene Wilson.
Among the allegations is that Ronnie Gene Wilson “made false or misleading statements to investigators from the Securities Division, including statements regarding the quantity of silver that the defendants actually took possession of and held for clients,” authorities said.
“Investors must be wary of those looking to defraud and deceive,” Attorney General Wilson said. “The Securities Division will continue to watch for unscrupulous individuals and businesses looking to take advantage hard working investors.”
See local report at wspa.com.
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2003/fall/40-to-watch?page=0,8
Tony,
That’s a good find. Thank you. I may do a separate story on this.
The local reports in South Carolina also suggest affinity fraud — faith — was wrapped into the alleged scam.
As things stand, it looks very much as though Atlantic Bullion and Coin Inc. was like a sort of ASD of “precious metals.”
1.) Charismatic leader.
2.) Faith as a backdrop.
3.) Previous brush with securities regulators.
4.) Leader was involved in local politics.
5.) Tens of millions of dollars gathered.
6.) Numerous investors not limited to one jurisdiction.
7.) Extremist behavior.
8.) State/Secret Service probes.
Additional note to readers: South Carolina was the venue from which the infamous “3 Hebrew Boys” Ponzi scam involving $82 million played out. The then-U.S. Attorney was accused of “treason” by a purported “sovereign.”
https://patrickpretty.com/2009/11/23/asd-all-over-again-3-hebrew-boys-accuse-u-s-attorney-of-treason-claim-draws-another-parallel-to-adsurfdaily/
Here’s what happened later:
https://patrickpretty.com/2010/12/14/bulletin3-hebrew-boys-sentenced-to-prison-terms-totaling-84-years-case-has-bizarre-elements-in-common-with-adsurfdaily-litigation/
Also see:
https://patrickpretty.com/2010/12/15/update-u-s-attorney-says-ponzi-sentences-handed-down-to-the-3-hebrew-boys-were-longest-in-history-of-south-carolina-district-forex-fraudsters-bought-5-million-private-jet-900000-party-bus/
Patrick
Quick note:
Political contributions, too, according to the Independent Mail of Anderson, S.C.
http://www.independentmail.com/news/2012/mar/16/class-action-lawsuit-proposed-against-ron-wilson/
ASD’s Andy Bowdoin also made political contributions:
From a PP Blog Special Report on May 7, 2009:
__________________________________________________________________________
The Beginning Of The End
During the months of February and March 2007 — a full year before ASD began to rake in the kind of money 12DailyPro and PhoenixSurf had raked in — Bowdoin made a catastrophic mistake that ultimately would come back to haunt him and lead to ASD’s undoing: He started donating money to the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), even as ASD members were complaining about not getting paid.
In 2008, a false story pushed by ASD members that Bowdoin had received a special award from the White House for a lifetime of business achievement began to circulate online, prosecutors said. What members pushing the story did not know — because Bowdoin did not tell them — was that the award was for NRCC campaign contributions, not business achievement, and that there was a paper trail to prove it.
It is a virtual certainty that Bowdoin’s NRCC contributions came from the proceeds of a Ponzi scheme . . .
The paper trail led to the campaign donations — and it also led to what prosecutors called a fraudulent address: 13 S. Calhoun St., Quincy, Fla. It was the address Bowdoin had used for AdSurfDaily, AdSalesDaily and DailyProSurf in public filings.
https://patrickpretty.com/2009/05/07/special-report-the-largely-unknown-bowdoin-surf/
__________________________________________________________________________
When the Bowdoin indictment became public in December 2010, the grand jury alleged that Bowdoin had made his NRCC donations with Ponzi money.
https://patrickpretty.com/2010/12/01/urgent-bulletin-moving-andy-bowdoin-indicted-adsurfdaily-president-arrested-in-florida/
Patrick