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Category: Alleged Ponzi Schemes

South Carolina Attorney General Alleges Ponzi Scheme And False Statements By Purveyor; U.S. Secret Service Seen Carting Boxes From Purported ‘Precious Metals’ Business

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…

Mar 16, 2012
EDITORIAL: The Astonishing Virality Of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid, A ‘Program’ That Purports To Pay A Return Of 2 Percent A Day And Makes Members Affirm They Are Not With The ‘Government’ — Even As Purported Operator Spotlights ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Implicated In Alleged Murder Plot Against Public Officials

EDITOR’S NOTE: For the purposes of this column, the PP Blog is reporting on only a small number of references to JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid in the past 24 hours, as compiled by Google’s “Past 24 hours” feature. Google also has a “Past hour” feature. At the time of this post, Google is reporting “About 3,970” indexed…

Mar 16, 2012
BULLETIN: 2 Michigan Men Arrested In Alleged Ponzi Scheme Targeting Senior Citizens; Jeffrey Ripley, Danny Lee VanLiere Charged With Racketeering, Jailed; 96 Felony Counts Filed Against Men And Their Company

BULLETIN: A joint investigation by offices of Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette and Commissioner Kevin Clinton of the Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation has led to criminal charges of racketeering against two men accused of targeting the elderly in a $9 million Ponzi scheme. Charged in the alleged caper were Jeffrey Ripley, 59, of…

Mar 14, 2012
UPDATE: Government Has Produced At Least 2,742 Pages Of Discovery In Kenneth Wayne Leaming Case; Trial For AdSurfDaily Figure And Purported ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Scheduled To Begin Sept. 17, One Week Before ASD President Andy Bowdoin Goes On Trial

“The Government has provided over 2742 pages of discovery consisting of: liens, police reports, [Bureau of Prisons] records, pictures, surveillance photos, internet search records, audio subpoenas and over 1000 pages of documents seized.” — From March 5 court order in false-liens case involving accused AdSurfDaily figure and purported “sovereign citizen” Kenneth Wayne Leaming and former…

Mar 14, 2012
UPDATE: ‘MoneyMakingBrain’ Asserts PP Blog Will ‘Go Down In Flames’ — Plus, He Suggests He’s In ‘Law Enforcement’ And May Issue Subpoena

“In law enforcement, we look into the IP address and whether is real or not (proxy). Then your service provider gives the account information with the customer’s name and address, then a warrant is made, then a police task force is dispatched with agents to raid your home or office, arrests you and seizes all…

Mar 12, 2012
BULLETIN: Philip Lochmiller Sr., 64-Year-Old Recidivist Huckster And Ponzi Schemer, Effectively Sentenced To Life In Prison

BULLETIN: Philip Lochmiller Sr., the Colorado recidivist securities huckster and Ponzi schemer whose case drew comparisons to the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case for a lack of key disclosures to investors, has been sentenced to 405 months in federal prison and ordered to pay restitution of $18.6 million. The term amounts to nearly 34 years. Lochmiller is…

Mar 10, 2012
FRIDAY HYIP ODDITIES: (1) Spammer Swipes PP Blog Graphic, Uses It In Bid To Promote LibertyReserve; (2) Other Spammers Target JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid Threads; (3) ‘MoneyMakingBrain’ Calls Blog ‘BIG Idiot’ And ‘Deceptive Unethical Lowlife’

Here is an imponderable: Is there any ceiling to the absurdities in the HYIP sphere and the destructive force it exercises around the web? On Wednesday, the PP Blog received repeated spams from U.S.-based IPs. The spammer used the handle “invest liberty reserve” and targeted two threads, including this one about JSS Tripler 2, a…

Mar 9, 2012
6 Pitchmen Who Raised Funds Plowed Into Jeffrey Mowen’s Ponzi Sanctioned By SEC On Heels Of Long-Running Lawsuit; Alleged Offering Fraud’s Advertised Monthly Payout Rate 20 Times LOWER Than JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid

UPDATED 7:43 A.M. ET (MARCH 9, U.S.A.) If ever there has been a cautionary tale for HYIP pitchmen, it is Jeffrey Lane Mowen’s Utah Ponzi scheme. Mowen and at least six promoters ended up inspiring litigation on multiple fronts, with Mowen charged criminally. At issue was Mowen’s Forex Ponzi scheme, which allegedly was funded in…

Mar 8, 2012
RECOMMENDED READING: Kautilya Nandan Pruthi, Author Of Britain’s Largest Ponzi Swindle, Sentenced To More Than 14 Years And Faces Deportation; While Con Man Faces Years Behind Bars, The Purported Return Rate of JSS Tripler/JustBeenPaid Dwarfs That Of ‘Britain’s Bernard Madoff’

This is a links post on the prison sentence of more than 14 years handed down to Kautilya Nandan Pruthi, the so-called Bernard Madoff of Britain. See The Sun’s coverage here. Outtake (italics added): “Judge Michael Gledhill QC said: “You are an extremely intelligent, articulate, sophisticated and plausible liar. In short, a professional fraudster.” See…

Mar 8, 2012
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Allen Stanford Guilty In Colossal U.S./Caribbean Ponzi Caper

Robert Allen Stanford, once listed by Forbes magazine as one of the richest men in the United States, has been found guilty in a Texas federal court on charges he operated one of the most epic Ponzi frauds in U.S. history. Stanford, 61, was found guilty on 13 of 14 criminal counts filed against him.…

Mar 6, 2012
Rust Consulting, Claims Administrator In AdSurfDaily Ponzi Case, Says ASD Members Dwight Owen Schweitzer And Todd Disner Are ‘Impermissibly’ Seeking To Relitigate D.C. Forfeiture Case Before Florida Federal Judge

UPDATED 2:57 P.M. ET (U.S.A., MARCH 11) Dwight Owen Schweitzer and Todd Disner — the two AdSurfDaily members from Miami who filed suit against the Justice Department and Rust Consulting Inc. in November 2011 — never filed remissions-claims forms, Rust said in a motion to dismiss the complaint. And Schweitzer and Disner are “impermissibly” seeking…

Mar 6, 2012