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Tag: F&S Asset Management Group Inc.

  • Receiver For Alleged Wayne McLeod Ponzi Scheme That Bilked Government Workers Opens Website; Michael I. Goldberg Asks For Help From Victims

    Saying he is interested in receiving input from victims, the court-appointed receiver in the alleged K. Wayne McLeod/Federal Employee Benefits Group Ponzi scheme has opened a website titled after the name of one of the companies named a defendant in the case by the SEC.

    Also named a defendant in the SEC case was another McLeod entity known as F&S Asset Management Group Inc. (FSAMG). McLeod died June 22. His death has been described by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office as a suicide. The SEC said in court filings last week that McLeod admitted to operating a fraud scheme after being confronted with evidence.

    He initially painted his company in a favorable light, according to court filings.

    The URL for the receiver’s site is FEBGinfo.com. (See link below.) Federal Employee Benefits Group went by the acronym FEBG and allegedly offered two bond funds that used the same acronym: FEBG Bond Fund and FEBG Special Fund. Both purported funds were scams, the SEC said.

    Receiver Michael I. Goldberg, a veteran attorney who also holds an MBA and has considerable experience in unraveling Ponzi schemes, cautioned that his probe was in its early stages.

    Goldberg’s early suggestions for creditors and victims are here.

    He noted that he was open to ideas, while also suggesting at least some of the victims may have “years of investigatory experience” that may be helpful to his probe.

    The SEC said the scheme, which is alleged to have begun in 1988, was targeted at government workers and law-enforcement agents. McLeod allegedly raised at least $34 million from an estimated 260 workers.

    Investigators said the government paid McLeod “up to” $15,000 to speak about benefits and retirement planning to government workers.

    Here is the link to the FEBG receivership site.

    Here (below) is a snapshot from one of the SEC filings in the case. Read the full document here.

  • BULLETIN: Another Florida Ponzi Scheme: SEC Sues Estate Of Dead Man, Saying Kenneth Wayne McLeod And His Companies Ripped Off Members Of ‘Law Enforcement’ And Operated Ponzi Scheme For Decades

    BULLETIN: The SEC has gone to court in Florida to obtain emergency relief against two companies and their late owner, alleging that Kenneth Wayne McLeod targeted government employees and members of law enforcement to invest in a government bond fund that did not exist.

    McLeod, 48, was found dead Tuesday in Jacksonville’s Mandarin Park. Local media outlets are reporting that the death is believed to be a suicide, but the SEC described the death only as “sudden.”

    In a dramatic emergency action, the SEC has sued McLeod’s estate and both of his businesses: Federal Employee Benefits Group Inc. (FEBG), a consulting firm, and F&S Asset Management Group Inc., a registered investment-advisory firm.

    U.S. District Judge Federico A. Moreno has frozen the assets of McLeod and the companies. The SEC said it was unclear who even was running the firms in the wake of McLeod’s death.

    Among the astonishing allegations was that McLeod had been operating a Ponzi scheme since at least 1988 and that the colossal fraud gathered “at least” $34 million from 260 investors across the country.

    “McLeod victimized law enforcement agents and other government employees who dedicated their lives to the service of this country,” said Eric I. Bustillo, director of the SEC’s Miami Regional Office. “The victims gave years of public service and McLeod stole their futures.”

    McLeod conducted investment seminars “at government agencies nationwide” to lure clients, the SEC said. The agencies paid “up to” $15,000 each for these seminars,” and FEBG held itself out as “dedicated to the complex issues surrounding special group employees, including Law Enforcement Officers, Firefighters and Air Traffic Controllers,”the SEC charged in the complaint.

    At least one investor was told the purported bond program was a special fund for family and friends, and families of “fallen agents,” the SEC charged.

    If the allegations are true, it means that McLeod was selling a Ponzi scheme dressed up as a secure retirement plan backed by government bonds right inside government offices — while earning a fee to make the pitch and plucking heartstrings by referring to people who had lost their lives in the line of duty.