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Tag: Forex fraud schemes

  • BULLETIN: 3 Church Officials, Including 2 Pastors, Arrested By Toronto Police In Alleged Fraud Scheme In Which Money Was Funneled To Panama

    Source: Toronto Police Service.
    Source: Toronto Police Service.

    BULLETIN: Dozens of members of a church congregation were scammed by husband-and-wife pastors and a church administrator in a Forex fraud and “loan” scheme in which money was funneled to Panama, Toronto police say.

    Arrested were Lorraine Bahlmann, 47, Verna Hibbert, 48, and Marlon Hibbert, 49. They’ve been charged with with 38 counts of fraud over $5,000 in the alleged scam, which reportedly gathered about $8.6 million.

    Millions of dollars appear to be missing, police said.

    “Each month, the accused would have statements, which he would send to the victims showing growth in their investment accounts when in fact the accused was losing money,” said Det. Gail Regan of the Service’s Financial Crimes Unit.

    The Ontario Securities Commission was involved in the probe, police said.

    “[L]arge portions of the victim’s money” are believed to have been transferred to Panama, Regan said.

    “The victims are hurt and distraught,” she said. “They still can’t believe that someone like him has done this to them.”

    Investigators have identified 38 victims, but Regan said there may be nearly 200. The phone number to contact police is 416-808-7238.

    Some of the victims lost their homes and life savings, Regan said.

    Between January 2005 and December 2010, “the accused convinced congregation members and their families and friends to invest money with the pastor in the form of loan agreements and investment contracts,” police said.

  • Now, A ‘Fraudulent $53 Million Worldwide Off-Exchange Forex Scheme,’ CFTC Alleges; Agency Charges Australian Resident Senen Pousa, U.S. Residents Joel Friant And Michael Dillard, Along With ‘Investment Intelligence Corp.’ And ‘Elevation Group Inc.’

    EDITOR’S NOTE: In a statement on the allegations against Senen Pousa, Joel Friant, Michael Dillard and their companies, the CFTC pointedly stressed that international agencies cooperated in a probe and that the alleged scammers created victims in multiple nations . . .

    The CFTC has gone to federal court in the Western District of Texas, alleging that Senen Pousa of Australia and Joel Friant of Bellingham, Wash., were running a “fraudulent $53 million worldwide off-exchange Forex scheme” through an Australian enterprise known as Investment Intelligence Corp. (IIC).

    Also charged in the alleged caper were Michael Dillard and Elevation Group Inc. of Austin, Texas.

    “The scheme allegedly accepted at least $53 million from at least 960 clients worldwide, including at least 697 clients in the United States, and clients in Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, and Singapore, among other countries. None of the defendants has ever been registered with the CFTC,” the CFTC charged.

    U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel of the Western District of Texas issued an emergency freeze of the assets of Pousa, Friant and IIC and prohibited the destruction of books and records, the CFTC said.

    Cooperating in the probe were the Australian Securities & Investments Commission, the U.K. Financial Services Authority, the Hungarian Financial Supervisory Authority, the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets, the Financial Markets Authority of New Zealand and the New Zealand Serious Fraud Office, the CFTC said.

    From a CFTC statement (italics added):

    The CFTC complaint alleges that from at least January 1, 2012 through the present IIC, through Pousa, Friant and its other agents, and defendants Dillard and Elevation Group, utilized “wealth creation” webcasts, webinars, podcasts, emails, and other online seminars via the Internet to directly and indirectly solicit actual and prospective clients worldwide to open forex trading accounts at IIC. The complaint further alleges that clients were promised by IIC, through Pousa, Friant, and other agents 1) a monthly return of 9 percent, 2) that IIC’s managed forex trading would risk less than 3 percent of a client’s capital per transaction, 3) that IIC was able to limit the risk inherent to forex trading by limiting its managed forex trading to 2 to 5 trades per month, and 4) that IIC has six “proprietary traders” working 24 hours a day trading clients’ funds. The CFTC complaint alleges that all of these representations to clients were false.

    On or about May 16-17, 2012, the complaint alleges that clients suffered a loss of over 60 percent of their investment, when IIC, by and through its agents, entered over 200 forex trades in each client’s account in violation of the representations made by IIC, by and through its agents.

    Also assisting the CFTC were the Texas State Securities Board, the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, the FBI and the SEC, the CFTC said.

    Read the CFTC complaint.

  • 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 said. Hirst operated from Mallorca, investigators said.

    U.K. officials said Hirst, 59, appeared in Bradford Magistrates Court today to face charges of money-laundering and conspiracy to defraud. The scheme is believe to have gathered more than £10m (about $16.2 million U.S.), causing losses of about £6m (nearly $10 million U.S.).

    Investigators said in November 2009 that Gilher hawked a “fund” that offered “a guaranteed return of 20% a year.”

    It was the second major Ponzi case brought in Europe in recent weeks. German Cardona Soler was arrested in Spain last month in a case described as a $300 million Ponzi scheme that affected more than 100,000 investors globally.

    The SFO investigation of Hirst “is still continuing in regards to the involvement of a number of additional individuals,” the SFO said today. Investigators did not name the other individuals or say how many others were under scrutiny.

    “Gilher Inc was a Panama and Seychelles registered company, operated by Hirst, which invested funds on behalf of private clients who were mainly based in the UK and Spain,” SFO said. “The investigation started in November 2009 following complaints made to the SFO by investors and has been investigated with the assistance of West Yorkshire and Surrey Police and overseas law enforcement authorities.”

    SFO did not identify the overseas authorities that assisted in the probe.

    Cardona is a figure in the alleged EMG/Finanzas Forex Ponzi scheme, which has been tied to multiple fraud schemes in Florida and a narcotics probe in Arizona, according to U.S. court filings. Some of the U.S.-based legwork in the alleged caper was performed by members of the same Task Force that brought a $110 million Ponzi prosecution against AdSurfDaily President Andy Bowdoin of Quincy, Fla.

    Cardona’s name also has surfaced in the George Theodule Ponzi scheme in Florida.

    Both EMG/Finanzas and AdSurfDaily were promoted on Ponzi and criminals’ forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.

    Hirst was ordered to remain at his residence and not to contact prosecution witnesses. He also was ordered to surrender his passport, SFO said.

  • FLORIDA — AGAIN: CFTC Charges Sunshine State Couple Amid Spectacular Allegations They Posed As Forex Experts, Targeted Seniors And Handed Off More Than $22 Million To Man Who Was Trying To Cover Up Previous Ponzi Scheme

    Gary and Brenda Martin of St. Augustine, Fla., posed as Forex dealers and experts, operated a website advertising their purported expertise, bragged about the talents of their unqualified sales “consultants” — and collected more than $22 million in an incredibly elaborate fraud scheme, the CFTC has charged.

    Neither of the Martins was registered with the CFTC. In fact, the agency said, they had “no expertise or experience in trading forex or any other commodity” and had “no trading accounts.”

    “[N]o forex trading occurred and no profits were ever realized,” the CFTC said.

    Unbeknown to customers, what the Martins did, according to the CFTC’s disturbing allegations, was funnel money from their customers to Sidney S. Hanson.

    Hanson, in turn, paid the Martins “referral fees” of up to 5 percent, based on the sums the Martins’ customers provided the couple. In this way, the Martins racked up $1.44 million in undisclosed commissions paid by Hanson, while the Martins’ customers believed they were doing business with the couple.

    And just who is Sidney S. Hanson?

    Why, Sidney S. Hanson is none other than the Sidney S. Hanson charged criminally in North Carolina by the Feds two years ago in a money-laundering, wire-fraud and securities-fraud case that alleged he was operating schemes dating back at least to 2000.

    And Sidney S. Hanson is the same Sidney S. Hanson charged in this companion action by the SEC in 2009. Also charged in the SEC case was Charlotte Hanson, Sidney Hanson’s wife. The CFTC also charged the Hansons in 2009.

    The first scheme was a loan scheme known as Apollo Trust, which promised “extraordinary rates of return,” according to federal prosecutors.

    Apollo, the CFTC said, was a Ponzi scheme — and a new scheme known collectively as the Queen Shoals Group emerged to cover the Apollo fraud.

    Along the way, customers’ money was used to finance “luxury resort vacations, private plane rentals, daily living expenses, and the purchase of an 88 acre farm,” the CFTC said in 2009.

    Sidney Hanson is scheduled to be sentenced on the criminal charges March 31.

    The Martins operated a Queen Shoals website and a Florida company known as Queen Shoals Consultants LLC, the CFTC said.

    They “simply” turned over huge sums to Hanson to plumb a commission, the CFTC charged.

    When Gary Martin was asked what Hanson did with the money, he replied, “I don’t know,” the CFTC charged.

    And this occurred after the Martins assured their customers that they were Forex experts with “vast experience.”

    Retirees and persons nearing retirement were lured into the scheme with the promise of high profits, the CFTC charged.

    “The Martins allegedly targeted customers at or near retirement who held individual retirement accounts (IRAs), luring them with promises of guaranteed annual returns of between eight to 24 percent generated by trading forex and other instruments,” the CFTC charged.  “The Martins also guaranteed an’ additional 1%’ to customers who held IRAs and agreed to rollover their IRAs into the defendants’ scheme.”