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Category: The Economy

TEXAS-SIZED MYSTERY: Day-Care Operator Accused Of Routing ‘At Least’ $60 Million Through Unlicensed Money-Transmitting Business

A Greater Dallas woman who ran a day-care center has been accused by federal prosecutors in Texas of operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business through which “at least” $60 million flowed between October 2004 and January 2008. The case against Christina Sang Bates is the second major case involving money-transmitting businesses to make the news in…

Apr 7, 2011
BULLETIN: Feds Say Man Filed False Liens For Tens Of Billions Of Dollars Against Federal Prosecutors, Investigators; Mark D. Leitner Indicted In Florida

BULLETIN: It has happened again, this time in the Sunshine State. Mark D. Leitner has been indicted in Florida on charges of filing false liens against federal prosecutors, investigators and court personnel involved in his criminal trial last year on tax charges. Leitner, whose age and address were not provided in a Justice Department statement,…

Apr 6, 2011
BULLETIN: U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office Charges John Neil Hirst In $16 Million Ponzi Fraud; Brits, French, Americans Allegedly Targeted By Gilher Inc. Of Panama And Seychelles

BULLETIN: John Neil Hirst has been charged by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in the United Kingdom in a case that alleges he was at the helm of an international Ponzi scheme that targeted British, French and Americans through a company registered in Panama and Seychelles. The company was known as Gilher Inc., the SFO…

Apr 6, 2011
UPDATE: Club Asteria Now Said To Have 230,000 Members; ‘I Got Paid’ Posts Appear On Ponzi Boards; Press Releases Picked Up By Google News; Web Promos Stress ‘Passive’ Earnings

“[I]f this company doesn’t have sales, it’s not a viable company. Every company has to have sales that’s what makes this company work because the great business model, not because it has a lot of outside resources, but with that said we have a lot of things planned in the next weeks and months ahead.…

Apr 4, 2011
STATEMENT: PP Blog Comes Under Attack Again

Today at approximately 5:18 a.m., the PP Blog came under attack from a swarm of international IPs. The attack appears to have disrupted operations for approximately two hours and 19 minutes. Functionality was restored at approximately 7:38 a.m., although signatures of the attack continued to appear. The attack appears actually to have begun prior to…

Apr 2, 2011
SPECIAL REPORT: Investor In Alleged Florida Forex Caper Arrested For Bankruptcy Fraud; Botfly LLC Ponzi Case Reminiscent Of ASD Case; Female Investigator Called Vile Names; Accused Schemer David Lewalski Shifted Blame To Government, Feds Say

UPDATED 1:14 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) A Florida man who allegedly received $1.5 million from an international Forex fraudster now jailed in the United States has been arrested on charges of bankruptcy fraud, federal prosecutors said. The three-count indictment against Jon Jerald Hammill, 39, of St. Petersburg, was unsealed yesterday. It marked the fourth major Ponzi-related…

Apr 1, 2011
A FLORIDA TRIFECTA: FTC Goes To Federal Court To Halt ‘Timeshare’ Telemarketing Scheme; ‘When Consumers Realized They Had Been Duped, The Defendants Routinely Dodged . . . Phone Calls,’ Agency Says

BULLETIN: Even as the SEC and CFTC were charging alleged Ponzi schemers and “precious-metal” fraudsters in Florida yesterday, the FTC was preparing to announce charges against an alleged “timeshare” telemarketing scheme operating in the Sunshine State. Charged by the FTC in the alleged timeshare scam were Albert M. Wilson, David S. Taylor, Frank M. Perry…

Mar 31, 2011
INCREDIBLE: Florida — AGAIN: CFTC Charges Ft. Lauderdale Firm, Principals In Alleged Precious-Metals Scam; ‘Defendants Never Held Or Acquired Any Metals,’ Agency Says

On the same day the SEC announced charges against two residents of South Florida in an alleged $30 million Ponzi scheme, the CFTC went to federal court and accused two other residents of the region of conducting a precious-metals scheme. Charged by the CFTC were James A. Ward of Ft. Lauderdale, and Nathaniel R. Walker…

Mar 31, 2011
FLORIDA — AGAIN: James Clements and Zeina Smidi Of Plantation Ran $30 Million Ponzi Scheme, SEC Says; Firm Claimed ‘Protected Jurisdiction’ Offshore; Defendants Already Face $50 Million Judgment From Class-Action Lawsuit

Two Florida residents have been accused by the SEC of operating a $30 million Ponzi and promissory-notes scheme that purported to trade foreign currency amid claims their domestic company was morphing into an “offshore” firm that would operate in a “protected jurisdiction.” The defendants in the case already face a judgment of $50 million from…

Mar 30, 2011
BULLETIN: OLINT’S David A. Smith Pleads Guilty In $220 Million Ponzi Scheme; International Forex Caper Laundered $128 Million, Feds Say

BULLETIN: David A. Smith, who presided over a $220 million Forex fraud known as OLINT, has pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Smith, 41, is a citizen of Jamaica. He “executed a Ponzi scheme to defraud over 6,000 investors located in the Middle District of Florida and elsewhere out…

Mar 29, 2011
FDA Chemist Cheng Yi Liang’s Very Bad Day: Busted By The Feds, Sued By The SEC For Trading On Information Lifted From Confidential Government Database

A chemist who works for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been charged criminally by federal prosecutors, arrested by federal agents in Maryland, sued by the SEC — and will go to bed tonight knowing his son has been arrested in the same case. Cheng Yi Liang, 56, of Gaithersburg, was accused of abusing…

Mar 29, 2011