FDIC

EDITOR’S NOTE: The PP Blog is back — after its most recent brush with death led to a suspension of publishing that lasted through all or parts of six days. You’ll read more in the days ahead about certain changes the Blog plans to implement to safeguard its right to publish, to improve revenue, to […]

In what federal prosecutors described as an “insider lending” scam, the 82-year-old former chairman of a bank that failed in 2011 has pleaded guilty to duping the bank and regulators by concealing his interests in loans made by the bank to his secret business associates. James A. Regas, of Oak Brook, caused employees of Western […]

Three vulnerable U.S. banks that processed illegal gambling payments for Full Tilt Poker in exchange for investments in the institutions later failed, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York said yesterday. The failures of Sunfirst Bank in St. George, Utah, and All American Bank and New City Bank — both of which were […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: Jeremy Johnson and associated companies were accused civilly by the FTC in December 2010 of orchestrating a massive fraud scheme involving hundreds of millions of dollars. At the moment, Johnson, 35, faces a single criminal charge of mail fraud. He denies wrongdoing on both the criminal and civil fronts and has painted himself […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: This information is presented in the form of briefs, with links to external sources. 1.) Doris E. Nelson, arrested/jailed in Spokane, Wash., region, last week after federal raid in April 2010. SEC filed civil charges in September 2011. The allegations against Nelson and multiple companies in Nevada, Utah and Canada are alarming, but […]

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 […]

Even as bank failures and  foreclosures were piling up in Georgia last year, a man associated with at least four failed autosurf companies was filing lawsuits against mortgage companies and 1,000 “Doe” defendants amid claims he did not know the “true names” of the “real lenders.” Clarence Busby Jr. of Acworth, Ga., advised a Cobb […]

Kaboom! It turns out that the cases announced this week against American Precious Metals LLC (APM)  by the CFTC and FTC were part of a geographically localized law-enforcement initiative that sprouted from “Operation Broken Trust,” a major national initiative undertaken last year by the U.S. Department of Justice and partner agencies as part of the […]

BULLETIN: Federal prosecutors say the collapsed Forex Ponzi scheme operated by Keith Franklin Simmons put an undercapitalized  North Carolina bank with 45 offices in 38 communities in harm’s way. In a dramatic announcement, Justice Department officials said CommunityONE Bank N.A of Asheboro, N.C., turned a blind eye to Simmons and did not file a single […]

Bartow County Bank, which once held deposits tied to Golden Panda Ad Builder and the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, has failed in Georgia. The Georgia Department of Banking and Finance closed the small bank today and appointed the FDIC receiver. Bartow once held $644,266 linked to Golden Panda, federal prosecutors said in a December 2008 […]

UPDATED 10:56 A.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The ASA Monitor Ponzi and criminals’ forum now is redirecting to a website operated by CashX.com, a Canadian payment processor that hawks MasterCard debit cards and says it permits customers to withdrawn money to Liberty Reserve. Liberty Reserve is a Ponzi-friendly payment processor purportedly headquartered in Costa Rica after earlier […]