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Tag: Hans P. Seibt

  • SENIOR FRAUD CAVALCADE CONTINUES: Ponzi Schemer, 86, Pleads Guilty; Stephen J. Klos Ripped Off Fellow Senior Citizens, Prosecutors Say

    Stephen J. Klos, an 86-year-old church usher who sold elderly congregants in the Seattle area into a $3 million Ponzi scheme that began in 2004, has pleaded guilty to 10 counts of securities fraud, the office of King County Prosecuting Attorney Daniel T. Satterberg said.

    Klos “met several of victims at his church and told them that he would invest their money but used most of it to repay prior investors and for his personal benefit,” Satterberg’s office said. He faces between 51 and 68 months in prison when sentenced Dec. 28 by Judge Bruce Heller.

    Only four years short of his 90th birthday, Klos now joins a curiously long list of convicted or alleged Ponzi schemers and/or swindlers who were detected or charged after their 65th birthdays.

    Others on the list include Bernard Madoff (New York/Florida); Andy Bowdoin (Florida); Arthur Nadel (Florida/now deceased); Martin B. Feibish (Rhode Island); Richard Piccoli (New York); Anthony Lupas (Pennsylvania); John William “Jack” Cranney (Massachusetts); Pat Kiley (Minnesota); Richard Elkinson (Massachusetts); Edward May (Michigan); John F. Langford (Texas); Hans P. Seibt (Nevada); Louis J. Borstelmann (California); Gerald J. “Jerry” Berke (California/Canada); Richard Horace Mayfield (Colorado); Richard M. Hersch (California); Richard Taft Johnson (Michigan); Julia Ann Schmidt (Texas); Ronald Keith Owens (Texas); James Blackman Roberts (Arkansas); Larry Atkins (North Dakota); Maxwell B. Smith (New Jersey); Judith Zabalaoui (Louisiana); Arthur Ferdig (California).

    NOTE: The list above is incomplete.

  • BULLETIN: Las Vegas Man, 70, Arrested In Alleged Ponzi Scheme Targeting Fellow Senior Citizens; Hans P. Seibt Booked Into Clark County Jail; State Charges Him With 25 Counts Of Securities Fraud, 6 Counts Of Theft

    BULLETIN: The Ponzi cavalcade involving senior citizens continues . . .

    Nevada state authorities have arrested Hans P. Seibt of Las Vegas on Ponzi charges. He specifically was charged under state law with 25 counts of securities fraud and six counts of theft, amid allegations he targeted senior citizens.

    At 70, Seibt himself is a senior citizen. He was booked into the Clark County Jail, and is being held without bail.

    Seibt is expected to make a court appearance Monday, according to Clark County records.

    “Targeting senior citizens is particularly egregious,” said Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto.

    The office of Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller described Seibt’s alleged crimes as a real-estate Ponzi swindle affecting investors in Nevada and “several other states.”

    “So-called interest payments or distributions that are paid to some investors aren’t a guarantee that an investment is legitimate,” Miller said. “That’s the whole basis for a Ponzi scheme. Potential investors just can’t be careful enough, especially in the current economic environment.”

    Investors were promised returns of between 10 percent and 12 percent, but Seibt duped them, investigators said.

    “Seibt successfully solicited investments of $10,000 or more from his victims, offering them trust deeds, joint venture agreements, and subscription agreements, all of which were supposedly secured by parcels of land Seibt was holding in Nye County,” investigators said.

    But the value of the land was “grossly exaggerated in order to support Seibt’s claims to his victims,” investigators said.

    And Seibt also didn’t purchase the land as advertised. Instead, he “used the money to pay off other investors and for personal use,” investigators said.

    Seibt did business as HSLV Development Corp., and Clark and Nye County Development Corp., investigators said.