Author: PatrickPretty.com
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‘Con Artists’ Who Ran Domain-Renewal Scam Hit With $4.2 Million Judgment; Thousands Of Website Owners Tricked Into Paying Bogus Bills, FTC Says
Thousands of U.S. consumers, businesses and nonprofits were tricked into paying “bogus bills” for the renewal of their website domains by “con artists” in Canada, the FTC said. A federal judge now has issued judgments of more than $4.2 million against the accused scammers. In the cases of three defendants, the judgment was suspended based…
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MORE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS FOR HYIP SCAMMERS? SEC Whacks Another ‘Small’ Ponzi; Agency Says Firm Used Asset ‘Freeze’ Ruse To String Along Victims
EDITOR’S NOTE: The SEC complaint against Candice D. Campbell is yet-another case apt to cause unease in the incongruous worlds of online HYIP, autosurf and investment fraudsters. Among the allegations against Campbell, a purported day-trader and “CFO” of an unincorporated, Canton, Mich.-based company known as CJ’s Financial, is that she lied to investors and used…
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BULLETIN: Minnesota Ponzi Scheme Bilked Banks Of $80 Million, Feds Say; Corey N. Johnston Charged With Bank Fraud, Tax Crime
Another spectacular Ponzi case has emerged in Minnesota just months after federal prosecutors charged Trevor Cook in an alleged $190 million scam and Tom Petters was convicted in a $3.65 billion scam. Charged in a new scheme today was Corey N. Johnston of Lakeville, a Minneapolis suburb. The Minneapolis/St. Paul region also is the home…
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EXPLOSIVE REVELATION: FBI, IRS Find More Than $400,000 In Stashed Loot In Trevor Cook Ponzi Case, Including More Than $200,000 In $100 Bills, Gold Coins, Watches, Baseball Cards
Trevor Cook’s brother was hiding more than $400,000 in cash and valuables from a $190 million Ponzi scheme, according to an extraordinary statement by the court-appointed receiver in the case. The loot was found July 23 — after Trevor Cook, whose plea agreement in the case required him to submit to a lie-detector test if…
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SEC: Felons, Recidivists Pushed ‘Green’ Energy Securities Swindle Through California ‘Boiler Room’; 6 People Charged In $11 Million Fraud Case
About 200 investors turned over $11 million to a boiler-room operation selling investments in a purported “green” energy company, the SEC said. The alleged swindle in which Kensington Resources Inc. sold unregistered shares of American Environmental Energy Inc. (AEEI) was pulled off by a convicted felon with the help of a recidivist securities offender, the SEC…
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BULLETIN: Montana Declares ACN Inc. A ‘Pyramid Scheme’; Cease-And-Desist Order Issued Amid Allegations Deck Is Stacked Against MLM Participants
BULLETIN: ACN Inc., a North Carolina-based multilevel-marketing company that bills itself “The World’s Largest Direct Seller of Telecommunication Services,” has been accused by the state of Montana of operating a pyramid scheme. Monica J. Lindeen, Montana’s Commissioner of Securities and Insurance, has issued a cease-and-desist order against ACN and a Notice of Proposed Agency Action.…
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DEVELOPING STORY: Feds Make Major Arrest In Tax Case Linked To Offshore Forex Fraud Scheme Known As Tradex; Arthur A. Ferdig, Who Claimed To Be ‘Taught By Angels,’ Detained On Felony Warrant
DEVELOPING STORY: Arthur A. Ferdig, who purported to be “taught by Angels and other wonderful beings of light, including the Christ Energy, Holy Spirit and more,” has been arrested and is listed as “in transit” to an unspecified federal detention facility. Ferdig, 70, was indicted under seal in April 2009 for evading taxes on income…
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BULLETIN: ‘Genesis Fund’ Operator John S. Lipton Gets 70 Months In Prison; ‘Offshore’ Forex Scheme Presaged Frauds, Lengthy Global Probes To Come
UPDATED 2:18 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) John S. Lipton, an alleged founding member and principal manager of the Genesis Fund Forex Ponzi scheme, has been sentenced to 70 months in federal prison for conspiracy to defraud the United States and tax evasion. The Genesis Fund scheme traces its roots at least to 1994 and presaged Forex,…