CFTC

The FBI has captured Perry and Rachelle Griggs, the fugitive Ponzi couple accused of running a scam while Perry Griggs was a federal prisoner in Nevada. The arrest was made in Kingman, Ariz., yesterday. Perry and Rachelle Griggs were indicted in October for wire fraud and mail fraud. They had been missing since January 2010. […]

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has gone to federal court in California to halt a precious-metals and options scheme operated by a man who claimed to have the same award for business achievement as AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin, according to web listings. Like Bowdoin, the head of Florida-based AdSurfDaily, Ryan A. Nassbridges of Laguna Niguel, […]

BULLETIN: UPDATED 9:18 A.M. ET (U.S.A., DEC. 8.) A Mexican company listed as a customer of Steve Renner’s Cash Cards International (CCI) in a 2005 scam known as MegaFund now has been charged by the CFTC with running a massive Forex fraud scheme that gathered at least $28 million from more than 800 U.S. customers. […]

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and members of President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force said this morning that a nationwide sweep known as “Operation Broken Trust” has netted 343 criminal defendants and 189 civil defendants. Among the targets of the sweep were purveyors of Ponzi schemes, affinity fraud, prime bank/high-yield investment scams, foreign exchange […]

BULLETIN: Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) traveled to the Turks And Caicos Islands to take accused Ponzi schemer David A. Smith into custody. Smith has been transported to the United States and is jailed in Florida. Smith, who was serving a prison term in the islands for fraud and conspiracy, became the […]

The religious facility that ultimately became St. John’s Reformed Episcopal Church has seen a lot of history in its 160 years on Anson Street in Charleston, S.C. Construction predated the Civil War by 11 years. The facility opened in 1850 as the Anson Street Chapel for black Presbyterians, according to records maintained by the Charleston […]

BULLETIN: UPDATED WITH INFORMATION FROM THE CFTC AT 7:03 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Perry and Rachelle Griggs are on the lam after running a Ponzi scheme while Perry Griggs was a federal prisoner in Nevada, the FBI said. The alleged commodities scheme consumed about $3 million and was targeted principally at inmates and family members of […]

A Hawaii man and his company were hit with sanctions totaling $6.2 million in a case that alleged they targeted people with hearing impairments in a Forex Ponzi scheme. Both the SEC and the CFTC filed actions against Marvin Cooper and his Honolulu-based firm, Billion Coupons Inc. (BCI). The CFTC announced the judgment against Cooper […]

UPDATED 7:11 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) When U.S. District Judge James Rosenbaum sentenced Ponzi schemer Trevor Cook to a quarter of a century in federal prison earlier this week, the judge used some powerful words to describe Cook’s colossal fraud. Rosenbaum described the scheme that bilked investors out of at least $158 million as “wretched, tawdry […]

BULLETIN: Ponzi schemer Trevor Cook has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for his role in an international Forex Ponzi scheme that gathered more than $190 million and fleeced victims out of more than $158 million. In ordering the prison term, U.S. District Judge James Rosenbaum sided with the prosecution’s recommendation of a […]

A church pastor targeted congregants in a Forex Ponzi scheme in which he misappropriated at least $462,000, the CFTC said. The pastor, Jeremiah C. Yancy, previously had been implicated by Idaho regulators in a real-estate swindle and scheme to sell unregistered securities that resulted in ruinous losses for investors, according to records. Yancy also is […]