PatrickPretty.com

Category: Alleged Ponzi Schemes

BULLETIN: FLORIDA — AGAIN: Man Once Jailed For Trying To Kill Woman He’d Beaten By Stuffing Her In Car Trunk And Drowning Her In Lake Now Accused Of Ponzi Scheme; Michael Scott Segal’s Fraud Caper Allegedly Began 5 Months After Prison Release

A Florida man started a $1.3 million fraud and Ponzi scheme in November 2008, five months after he was released from prison after serving seven years for trying to kill a woman, according to federal prosecutors and state records. Michael Scott Segal, 50, of Miami, was charged in 2001 — when he was 40 —…

Aug 16, 2011
UPDATE: International Forex Ponzi Swindler David A. Smith Sentenced To 30 Years In U.S. Jail

David A. Smith, the Ponzi schemer who swindled investors in the Caribbean and Florida in a caper that gathered more than $200 million, has been sentenced to 30 years in a U.S. prison. Smith, a Jamaican citizen who was brought to Florida last year to face the U.S. charges, first must serve a sentence of…

Aug 15, 2011
Recidivist Felon Robert Stinson Of ‘Life’s Good’ Pleads Guilty To 26-Count Ponzi Indictment, Faces Decades In Prison

Robert Stinson Jr., the Philadelphia-area recidivist felon and securities swindler accused last year of stealing $17 million in a Ponzi scheme and wiring money to prevent it from being seized even as the FBI was conducting a raid, has pleaded guilty. Stinson, 56, of Berwyn, faces a maximum under federal sentencing guidelines of nearly 34…

Aug 15, 2011
UPDATE: AdSurfDaily ‘Blast’ Apparently Has Begun; PP Blog Has Received Complaints From Members Who Say They Never Agreed To Receive A Fundraising Email; One Member May Be A Witness For The Government In The ASD Ponzi Case

UPDATE: The PP Blog yesterday began to receive complaints from AdSurfDaily members unhappy that they were being solicited to help ASD President and accused Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin pay for his criminal defense. “Check this out,” one concerned ASD member said. “Andy is asking his victims to pony up in excess of $500K to help…

Aug 12, 2011
ONLY ON THE INTERNET: Accused Huckster Andy Bowdoin’s Email ‘Blast’ To Raise 500K In Defense Funds May Begin Today; Recidivist Fraudster And Self-Described ‘Money Magnet’ Also Plans Facebook Appeal

Federal prosecutors say Andy Bowdoin scammed investors in a securities swindle in the 1990s. They add that one of his partners in the autosurf trade was accused by the SEC in the 1990s of pitching a prime-bank swindle. Bowdoin, 76, was arrested in December on charges that he presided over an autosurf Ponzi scheme known…

Aug 11, 2011
ASD ECHO CHAMBER? Bizarre Ponzi Case That Included Apparent ‘Sovereign Citizens’ And Crackpot Legal Theories Ends With Spectacular Total Of 465 Guilty Verdicts Against Final 2 Defendants

UPDATED 7:57 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) It featured a Ponzi huckster touting a can’t-miss earnings scheme in an Internet video. For good measure, it featured apparent “sovereign citizens,” crackpot claims that U.S. law did not apply to the scheme and incongruous claims that the scheme had passed muster with the SEC. It also included a failed…

Aug 9, 2011
BULLETIN: Judge Finds That Purported Forex ‘Experts’ Used Bogus Website, Former High School Coaches And J.C. Penney Sales Clerks In Scheme That Funneled Millions To Ponzi Schemer Now Jailed With Bernard Madoff

EDITOR’S NOTE: Both the CFTC and SEC have encountered incredibly elaborate fraud schemes — some with elements that only can be described as bizarre and deeply disturbing. The story below is based on a fraud case brought by the CFTC against Gary D. Martin and Brenda K. Martin of St. Augustine, Fla. The Martins are…

Aug 9, 2011
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Judge Declares Mantria Corp. A ‘Smoke And Mirrors’ Ponzi Scheme, Says Troy Wragg And Amanda Knorr-Led Firm Acted With ‘Sociopathic Greed’; Defendants ‘Shamelessly’ Raised $54.5 Million Through ‘Blatant Lies’

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Using direct, no-nonsense language, U.S. District Judge Christine M. Arguello has ruled Mantria Corp. a Ponzi scheme that operated with “sociopathic greed” to defraud investors of millions of dollars. Some investors were encouraged to drain equity in their homes to invest with Mantria, according to the ruling. The ruling was…

Aug 8, 2011
UPDATE: CenturionWealthCircle, ‘Program’ Pushed By Club Asteria Cheerleaders On The Ponzi Boards, May Be Trying To Address Ponzi Collapse By Implementing ‘Feeder’ Ponzi; ASD Tried The Same Thing, Only With ‘Autosurfs,’ Court Filings Say

CenturionWealthCircle (CWC) appears to be moving from the ridiculous to the absurd, fueled in no small measure by serial, wink-nod scammers on the Ponzi boards. Members of Club Asteria, an “opportunity” that suspended cashouts weeks ago amid reports its PayPal account had been frozen, were among CWC’s early cheerleaders. Club Asteria promoters also have been…

Aug 8, 2011
BULLETIN: Attorney Pleads Guilty In $47 Million ‘Bond’ Ponzi Scheme That Caused Arkansas Bank To Collapse; ‘Fraud, Whether Of This Magnitude Or Not, Cannot Be Tolerated,’ U.S. Attorney Christopher R. Thyer Says

BULLETIN: An Arkansas attorney and businessman caused a bank to collapse with his $47 million Ponzi scheme involving the sale of fraudulent bonds, federal prosecutors said. Kevin Harold Lewis, 43, of Little Rock, pleaded guilty to a federal charge of bank fraud after waiving indictment, prosecutors said. First Southern Bank, an FDIC-insured institution, collapsed after…

Aug 4, 2011
DATA SHAPING? Bowdoin Email ‘Blasts’ To 77,000 Members Delayed In Favor Of Purported ‘Soft Launch’

Late Tuesday, a fundraising email attributed to accused Ponzi schemer Andy Bowdoin of AdSurfDaily acknowledged that an advertised email “Blast” to 77,000 ASD members that was supposed to have occurred on Monday — the third anniversary of the Aug. 1, 2008, ASD-related asset seizures — had not occurred. What actually occurred, according to the email,…

Aug 4, 2011