Tag: Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force
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Now, A Fast-Food Ponzi Scheme: Feds Say Ohio Man Swindled Millions By Telling Investors He Built Chicken And Burger Restaurants
EDITOR’S NOTE: Here’s one for your Bubba Blue notebook on the various ways to have a Ponzi scheme, as opposed to shrimp — and this one actually wafts with the myth of food — in this case, chicken and burgers. More than 200 investors have been fleeced in a bizarre scheme in which an Ohio…
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NEWS/UPDATES: Feds Say $900 Million Nevin Shapiro Ponzi ‘Perfect Example Of Greed Run Amok’; Colorado Charges Bela Geczy, Michael Kass With Racketeering In Fraud Case
The acts of Nevin Shapiro — a Florida man arrested in New Jersey yesterday on charges of orchestrating a $900 million Ponzi scheme — represent a “perfect example of greed run amok,” an FBI agent said. Separately, a grand jury in Colorado has charged two men under the state’s organized-crime statute with operating an $18…
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BULLETIN: Trevor Cook, Minnesota Ponzi Scheme Figure, Pleads Guilty In $190 Million Fraud Case
BULLETIN: (UPDATED 12:35 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) Trevor G. Cook, implicated in a $190 million Ponzi scheme that pushed tremendous sums of money all over the world and is believed to have fleeced investors out of at least $139 million, has entered a guilty plea in federal court in Minnesota. No sentencing date has been sent.…
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BULLETIN: Trevor Cook Charged Criminally With Mail Fraud And Tax Evasion In Alleged $190 Million Ponzi Case In Minnesota
BULLETIN: Trevor Cook, the reputed head of a $190 million Ponzi scheme in Minnesota, has been charged criminally with mail fraud and income-tax evasion. Cook, 37, previously had been charged civilly by the SEC and the CFTC. The criminal charges filed today came after a probe by the FBI and the IRS Criminal Investigations Unit,…
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Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force Credited With Bust In Bizarre Ohio Ponzi Involving ‘Unique Momentum Filter’; Enrique F. Villalba Charged With Wire Fraud
An Ohio man who graduated from West Point and earned a law degree in Washington state has been charged in a bizarre Ponzi and investment-fraud scheme that allegedly combined the science of physics with a unique “momentum filter” that purportedly enabled him to predict how the futures market would behave with “an uncanny degree of…
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BULLETIN: CFTC Busts 2 Alleged Ponzi Schemes; Patrick H. Rakotonanahary Arrested By FBI In Florida After Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force Probe
A Florida man has been arrested by the FBI on 21 counts of wire fraud amid allegations he operated a forex Ponzi scheme, collecting more than $10.2 million and pocketing $1 million for himself. The announcement of the arrest of Patrick H. Rakotonanahary, 34, of Punta Gorda, Fla., was made in Hawaii after a joint…
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BULLETIN: Another Florida Fraud Case; SEC Charges 4 In Alleged ‘Children’s Book’ Scheme Known As ‘Winning Kids’; Attorney General Introduced Task Force In Area Three Weeks Ago
UPDATED 5:18 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) A Florida company and four individuals have been charged with securities fraud by the SEC, amid allegations they fleeced investors in a children’s book company known as “Winning Kids.” Charged in the case were Winning Kids Inc. of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla; Christian Hainsworth, Winning Kids’ chief executive officer and…