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Tag: IRS

  • BULLETIN: Another ‘False Liens’ Case; Andrew Isaac Chance Charged With Filing $1.3 Billion Bogus Claim Against Federal Prosecutor In Maryland

    BULLETIN: A Maryland man has been indicted and arrested on charges of filing a false lien for more than $1.3 billion against a federal prosecutor who had successfully prosecuted him for filing a bogus income-tax return in 2007.

    Andrew Isaac Chance also has been charged with filing false tax returns for an entity known as “Andrew I. Chance Trust” in 2007, 2008 and 2009. He faces up to 25 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million if convicted on the new charges.

    In 2007, Chance was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison for filing a false tax claim for an entity known as “ANDREW CHANCE TRUST.” Chance sought a refund of $306,753 in that case, and refunds of $300,000 for each of the three years cited in the new case, prosecutors said.

    He is currently on federal probation — and now faces the new charges.

    Prosecutors said he placed a false lien of “$1.313 billion against the property” of the federal prosecutor in the earlier case. The prosecutor was an assistant U.S. Attorney, according to the U.S. Department of Justice and the IRS.

    A federal grand jury in Greenbelt, Md., returned the new indictments, the Justice Department and the IRS said.

    Bizarre paperwork attacks against prosecutors and other federal employees have occurred elsewhere in the United States. In July, a California man was indicted in Nevada on charges of filing 22 false liens ranging from $25 million to $300 million against the officials, prosecutors said.

    Thanh Viet Jeremy Cao also sought $20 billion in fraudulent tax refunds, prosecutors charged.

    In June, Ronald James Davenport of Deer Park, Wash., was charged with filing false liens against federal officials in Washington state.

    Davenport, who described himself as a “sovereign” being, sought the spectacular sum of nearly $5.2 billion from each of the officials, including U.S. Attorney James McDevitt of the Eastern District of Washington, an assistant U.S. attorney, a court clerk and an IRS agent, according to court records.

    Prosecutors in the Chance case in Maryland described him as a “tax defier.”

    Members of the AdSurfDaily autosurf — an alleged Ponzi scheme — have been associated with schemes to file liens or threats to file liens against judges, prosecutors and members of law enforcement.

    Some ASD members have described themselves as “sovereign” beings. Elsewhere, the three principal figures in the “3 Hebrew Boys” Ponzi case in South Carolina also described themselves as sovereign.

    The sentences handed out to the “3 Hebrew Boys” defendants were the longest in any federal Ponzi scheme case in South Carolina history, prosecutors said earlier this week. The sentences totaled 84 years — 27 years each for two defendants, and 30 years for a third.

  • BULLETIN: Company That Did Business With Steve Renner’s Cash Cards International Charged In Massive Forex Swindle; Case Against MXBK Group S.A. De CV Grew Out Of Cooperative Probe Among SEC, CFTC, FBI And IRS; SEC Charges Pitchmen With Blindly Promoting Scam, Even After Collapse

    BULLETIN: UPDATED 9:18 A.M. ET (U.S.A., DEC. 8.)

    A Mexican company listed as a customer of Steve Renner’s Cash Cards International (CCI) in a 2005 scam known as MegaFund now has been charged by the CFTC with running a massive Forex fraud scheme that gathered at least $28 million from more than 800 U.S. customers.

    Named defendants by the CFTC were MXBK Group S.A. de CV, a private Mexican financial services holding company, and its Forex trading division, MBFX S.A. Court records show that MXBK Group S.A. de CV formerly was known as MexBank Group SA de CV or MexBank.

    Separately, the SEC has charged three men with fraud for blindly pitching the MexGroup program and raising “tens of millions” of dollars in the process. Charged in Utah federal court were Clifton K. Oram, Don C. Winkler and William R. Michael.

    “Beyond the fact that none of the defendants understood how the Forex market or Forex trading functioned, neither Oram, Winker or Michael took any significant steps to investigate MexGroup, its principals, or the viability of the investment,” the SEC charged. “Instead, they blindly accepted MexGroup’s representations about its background, veracity, and track record.

    “Further, Michael and his company used MexGroup’s purported performance numbers on his company’s website and made misleading representations and omissions regarding their own Forex trading experience,” the SEC continued. “Even more egregious, Winkler and Oram continued to offer and sell the MBFX offering even after the November 2008 collapse.”

    Renner, the operator of both CCI and the INetGlobal autosurf, currently is serving an 18-month prison sentence for tax evasion. In February 2010, the U.S. Secret Service alleged that Renner was operating a Ponzi scheme through INetGlobal.

    Renner has denied the Ponzi allegations.

    The CFTC case against the Mexican companies and the SEC case against the promoters were brought as a result of a joint cooperative investigation among the regulators, the FBI and the IRS, officials said.

    Read the CFTC complaint, which alleges the MXBK Group Forex scam began in 2005.

    Here is a snippet:

    “U.S. customers sign up to participate in the Defendants’ forex trading enterprise by completing forms electronically on the Defendants’ internet website. However, when completing their customer applications, U.S. customers are required to designate certain U.S. individuals or entities, sometimes called ‘resellers’ or ‘introducers,’ who in turn act as liaisons for U.S. customers with Defendants’ operations in Mexico. The resellers or introducers receive rebates described as ‘PIPs,’ which are purportedly based upon the volume of trading.”

    (NOTE: The full complaint is highly recommended reading if you follow HYIP and Forex fraud schemes.)

  • BREAKING NEWS: Atlanta Securities Attorney Gregory Bartko Jailed Immediately After Guilty Verdicts In North Carolina Fraud Case; Judge Finds That Lawyer Committed Perjury While Testifying

    The Atlanta securities attorney who was defending clients in the alleged Billionaire Boys Club Ponzi case in Detroit and then was indicted in North Carolina on charges that he was running his own fraud scheme has been found guilty.

    Gregory Bartko was immediately jailed by U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III, who found that Bartko had committed perjury on the witness stand in the North Carolina case. Jurors had just returned guilty verdicts against Bartko for conspiracy, mail fraud and selling unregistered securities.

    How the Detroit case in which Bartko was representing accused Ponzi schemer John J. Bravata against civil charges filed by the SEC will proceed is unclear.

    Prosecutors said the North Carolina case against Bartko was one in which an attorney tried to hide behind criminals to insulate himself from prosecution.

    “We should not let criminals get away simply because they have carefully covered their tracks,” said U.S. Attorney George E.B. Holding of the Eastern District of North Carolina.

    “Complicated and difficult crimes by sophisticated and careful criminals may not be easy to investigate or prosecute, but they are some of the most important cases our office handles,” Holding said. “In this case, an experienced Atlanta securities attorney had used other criminal players to insulate himself from prosecution. He had evaded SEC audits, avoided examination by the bar association, and managed to fool nearly everyone, keeping both his license to practice law and his securities licenses.

    “The Defendant was involved in a scheme to defraud victims of millions of dollars but yet was still representing clients before the SEC,” Holding said. “Such a defendant deserves to be prosecuted to the full degree under the law.”

    Assisting in the Bartko case were the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the IRS and the North Carolina Secretary of State’s Office.

    See earlier story on the PP Blog.

    See Holding’s news release on the conviction and jailing of Bartko.

    The 2009 Michigan case became known as the “Billionaires Boys Club” prosecution because a Bravata company was named “BBC Equities,” and the SEC asserted in July 2009 that BBC was intended to stand for “Billionaire Boys Club.”

    A California Ponzi scheme in the 1980s also was known as “The Billionaire Boys Club.”

  • BREAKING NEWS: OLINT Boss David A. Smith Extradited To United States From Turks And Caicos Islands; Faces Charges In Spectacular Forex-Fraud Case In Orlando Region

    BULLETIN: Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) traveled to the Turks And Caicos Islands to take accused Ponzi schemer David A. Smith into custody. Smith has been transported to the United States and is jailed in Florida.

    Smith, who was serving a prison term in the islands for fraud and conspiracy, became the subject of an official request by the United States to extradite him to face federal charges in Florida for bilking investors out of more than $220 million.

    The director of ICE said the Smith fraud posed a danger to the U.S. banking system, and the Department of Homeland Security is involved in the probe of Smith’s business activities.

    “One of ICE-Homeland Security Investigations’ critical missions is investigating the flow of illicit money across U.S. borders and the criminal enterprises behind that money,” said ICE Director John Morton. “Not only do these kinds of financial schemes damage the lives of the thousands of victims, but the international money laundering involved poses a direct threat to the security of the U.S. financial system.”

    Smith was at the head of a Jamaican company known as Overseas Locket International Corp. (OLINT), prosecutors said. In 2006, he started another firm known as OLINT TCI Corp. Ltd. in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

    Both firms were described as “private investment clubs,” prosecutors said.

    Smith also was the majority owner in a Lake Mary, Fla., firm known as I-Trade FX LLC, prosecutors said.

    The scheme was pulled off with the help of unindicted co-conspirators in the United States, prosecutors said.

    The conspiracy was carried out in Seminole County, Fla., and was designed to channel money from the scheme into U.S. banks, prosecutors said.

    Residents of Orange County were affected by the scheme, prosecutors said. They noted that the unindicted co-conspirators were affiliated with a Florida company known as JIJ Investments. Prosecutors did not name the unindicted co-conspirators, describing them as “Directors” of JIJ.

    Federal prosecutors in the Middle District of Florida are involved in several actions targeted at alleged purveyors of massive fraud schemes.

    Assisting in the Smith case are U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), National Futures Association (NFA), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force.

    See earlier story.

  • Feds Charge Robert Stinson Criminally On Heels Of SEC Lawsuit; Prosecutors Say ‘Life’s Good’ Operator Stole More Than $17 Million In Ponzi Scheme, Wired Money Even As FBI Was Conducting Raid

    Even as the FBI was executing search warrants in the case of Life’s Good Inc. operator Robert Stinson Jr., Stinson was “wiring stolen funds out of Life’s Good bank accounts to other accounts,” federal prosecutors said.

    That act alone led to criminal charges of obstruction of justice. In a 26-count indictment in an alleged Ponzi scheme in which Stinson was accused of stealing more than $17 million from more than 260 investors, Stinson also was charged with wire fraud, mail fraud, money-laundering, bank fraud, filing false tax returns and making false statements to federal agents.

    At 12:06 p.m. on June 29 — the date of the raid and while federal agents were executing search warrants — Stinson began a series of wire transactions in which he moved at least $225,000 to prevent the cash from being seized, according to the indictment.

    Two of the transactions occurred during the same minute and involved two separate banks, according to the indictment.

    The scam involved promises of fixed returns of between 8 and 16 percent in four bogus real-estate hedge funds, prosecutors said. They added that Stinson was not a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or Pennsylvania State University, as he had claimed.

    Although Stinson, 55, of Berwyn, Pa., told a tale of fabulous business success, he actually was a recidivist securities offender and had multiple fraud convictions. Part of his most recent fraud involved and online “webinar” and a PowerPoint presentation, according to the indictment.

    Stinson claimed to have “funded millions of dollars in real estate rehab and improvements as well as saved over 1,500 families from foreclosure free of charge,” according to the indictment.

    “Advisors” who drove business to the criminal firm were paid commissions of between 5 percent and 10 percent of the money they brought in.

    In 1986, he was convicted of wire fraud and larceny in U.S. Court in Delaware, according to records. In 1987, he was convicted of forgery and larceny in New Jersey state court. During the same year, he was convicted of mail fraud in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

    Meanwhile, in 1996, he was convicted of criminal conspiracy in state court in Pennsylvania. In 2001, he was convicted of bank fraud in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

    Stinson filed two bankruptcy petitions in 1999, one in October and another in December, according to records.

    Nine years earlier, in 1990, he was charged with fraud by the SEC. He was ordered to pay a judgment of $7,680, but the judgment remains unpaid, according to court filings.

    The SEC sued Stinson in June. The criminal probe was conducted by the FBI, the IRS and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

    If convicted on all counts, Stinson faces a maximum sentence of 329 years in federal prison and a fine of $6.8 million.

  • BULLETIN: Woman Who Did Not Report Ponzi Schemer Richard Piccoli Sentenced To 18 Months In Federal Prison For ‘Misprision Of Felony’ And Tax Charge; Kathleen Fuoco Turned ‘Blind Eye’ To Fraud, Prosecutors Say

    BULLETIN: In a case that could send shockwaves across the culture of promoting scams and accepting payments from scams, a New York woman who turned a blind eye to Richard Piccoli’s long-running Ponzi scheme in New York state has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for misprision of a felony and willful failure to file tax returns.

    Kathleen Fuoco, 60, of West Seneca, N.Y., pleaded guilty to the charges in June. She was sentenced today in Buffalo. Piccoli, 83, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year. He became infamous in the Buffalo region for targeting people of faith in the scheme.

    Fuoco knew Piccoli was operating a scam, but did not report him, prosecutors said in June. Her failure to report the scheme brought about the misprision charge and also resulted in an agreement with prosecutors in which a financial judgment of $25 million would be placed against Fuoco, the total amount of restitution due victims.

    Piccoli operated a firm known as Gen-See Capital Corp., and directly targeted Christians and senior citizens.

    “Our seniors and clergy are absolutely pleased with Gen-See’s Re-Investment Program,” Piccoli said, according to marketing materials gathered by investigators as evidence in the case.

    The Piccoli prosecution was brought after an undercover sting by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the IRS.

    After Fuoco’s guilty plea in June,  U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul said “the public should know that if you attempt to defraud any hard working citizen or turn a blind eye while someone else is committing fraud, you will be caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

    Hochul built on his earlier remarks after Fuoco’s sentencing today.

    “The best defense for investors is to conduct your own due diligence and research,” he said. “When unscrupulous defendants take advantage of others through fraud, however, my office stands ready to bring the full force of law to punish the crime.”

    Misprision of felony is a charge that serial promoters of online scams such as autosurfs, HYIPs and 2×2 matrix cyclers potentially could face. The schemes proliferate in no small measure because promoters who play dumb to the fraud create the conditions that make it possible for the “programs” to go “viral” on the Internet.

    Some promoters help fuel scheme after scheme after scheme, perhaps saying later that they were surprised the programs proved to be fraudulent.

    Such bids to create plausible deniability have been unmasked by the U.S. Secret Service in a number of investigations since 2008. In some cases, the agency has used undercover identities to join the schemes and later advised federal judges that the agents were instructed by members of the schemes to avoid using certain phrases in sales pitches to minimize the chance of getting caught.

    In certain undercover operations, the Secret Service revealed it had agents in rooms or venues from which scammers were delivering sales pitches to an audience. Some schemers have been kept under surveillance for weeks by agents.

    Court documents in the alleged AdSurfDaily (Florida) and INetGlobal (Minnesota) Ponzi schemes — and in the alleged Regenesis 2×2 (Washington state) Ponzi scheme — show that agents moved from location to location and even city to city to build evidence against Ponzi schemers.

    Meanwhile, court documents show that undercover Secret Service operatives and their state law-enforcement colleagues even have posed as interested investors and walked right through the front doors of offices operated by suspected fraudsters.

    Court filings in the alleged Legisi Ponzi scheme brought by the SEC show that the behavior of the alleged schemer changed after he came to understand he was under investigation — a development that allegedly led to even greater chicanery to hide the scheme.

  • UPDATE: Ponzi ‘Shakedown’ Suspects Who Impersonated Federal Agents Get 6 Months’ Home Detention And Are Placed On Probation For 2 Years

    Three people charged with conspiring to impersonate federal agents in a bid to rattle the nerves of a Ponzi scheme suspect and recover money have been sentenced to 180 days of home confinement and placed on federal probation for two years.

    A fourth defendant in the shakedown scheme avoided a sentence of home confinement but was placed on federal probation for two years.

    The bizarre shakedown scheme unfolded in March 2009, when Michael David Sanders, 43, of Fair Oaks, Calif.;  Craig Anderson, 41, of Chicago; Sean Smartt, 42, of Sacramento; and Cassandra Moore, 27, of Beverly Hills, Calif.,  entered a California hedge-fund office suite in a bid to recover investor money “lost in a Ponzi scheme carried out by federal defendant Anthony Vassallo,” the FBI said.

    “The defendants entered dressed to give the impression of authority (bullet proof vests, ear pieces, fake credentials, hand cuffs, and badges),” the FBI said.  “Sanders and Anderson announced they were with the FBI and the United States Security and Exchange Commission.

    “In their guilty pleas the defendants admitted to creating an environment that was intimidating and causing the individuals to believe that they were not free to leave,” the FBI continued. “Anderson told the hedge fund operators that they had until noon on Monday, March 9, 2009, to wire $378,300.16 to a Patelco Credit Union bank account in the name of the ‘Spirit Foundation’ and to send an e-mail confirmation to an e-mail address they provided. No money was ever turned over to the defendants.”

    Moore was the only defendant who avoided home detention.

    The shakedown bid was connected to the the alleged Equity Investment Management and Training Inc. (EIMT) Ponzi scheme that gathered more than $40 million.

    It is illegal to impersonate a federal agent. Had the defendants not accepted a plea deal and not qualified for probation, they could have been sentenced to federal prison. Each pleaded guilty and accepted the deal. The IRS assisted in the probe.

  • BULLETIN: Ponzi Suspect Kills Self, New York Newspaper Reports; Ashvin Zaveri Was Implicated In $35 Million Swindle

    A New York man implicated by the FBI and the IRS in a Ponzi scheme has killed himself, the Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester is reporting.

    It is at least the second Ponzi-related suicide in the United States in recent weeks. Florida Ponzi suspect Wayne McLeod, suspected of bilking federal employees, killed himself in Florida in June.

    In the New York case, Ashvin Zaveri, 71, of Honeoye Falls, N.Y., was indicted in December 2009 for mail fraud, wire fraud and money-laundering.

    Prosecutors said Zaveri defrauded investors in an oil-and-gas scam that gathered $35 million.

    Read the story in the Democrat and Chronicle.

  • BULLETIN: Trevor Cook Sentenced To 25 Years In Federal Prison; Victims Lost At Least $158 Million In International Forex Ponzi Scheme That Traded On Religion

    Trevor Cook

    BULLETIN: Ponzi schemer Trevor Cook has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for his role in an international Forex Ponzi scheme that gathered more than $190 million and fleeced victims out of more than $158 million.

    In ordering the prison term, U.S. District Judge James Rosenbaum sided with the prosecution’s recommendation of a quarter of a century. It is believed to be the longest prison term ever imposed in a Minnesota financial-fraud case in which the defendant pleaded guilty.

    “Such a sentence fairly, adequately, and justly punishes the defendant for his offense, reflecting the seriousness of the offense, his willingness to plead guilty and provide information to law enforcement, and the need to protect the public,” prosecutors said last week in a sentencing recommendation to Rosenbaum.

    “Over the course of a few years, the defendant executed an investment fraud, victimizing approximately 923 victims and defrauding them of over $158 million,” prosecutors said. “As is all too common, the defendant often used victims’ religious beliefs as a means of enticing them to give him their money.”

    Cook, 38, is not out of legal harm’s way — even with the sentence of 25 years. Prosecutors disclosed last week that he has signed a waiver that would subject him to further punishment if the ongoing investigation shows he has “somehow secreted undisclosed assets.”

    Victims have expressed concerns that Cook could have stashed money from the scheme anywhere on earth. Cook failed a lie-detector last month about the whereabouts of assets.

    FBI and IRS agents later found more than $400,000 in undisclosed assets under the control of Graham Cook, Trevor Cook’s brother.

    Despite Cook’s lack of disclosure, prosecutors contended that it made no sense to delay Cook’s sentencing any longer as the asset search by the government and R.J. Zayed, the court-appointed receiver in a civil case filed against Cook and former Christian radio host Pat Kiley last year by the SEC and the CFTC, continued.

    Cook had been scheduled to be sentenced last month. Kiley, who called his radio listeners “truth seekers,” has not been charged criminally in the case.

    “The government has worked closely with the court-appointed receiver to assist its efforts in finding and identifying assets,” prosecutors said of Cook. “The government and the receiver now agree that any additional time prior to sentencing will not result in any additional information or assistance to the receiver’s efforts.”

    It is possible that Cook could prove to be a valuable source of information for the government — in the same sense that disbarred attorney, convicted racketeer and Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein has become an information source.

    Rothstein, who presided over a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme in Florida, was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison earlier this year. It is known that Rothstein has provided information helpful to the government.

    Cook “has been repeatedly debriefed by law enforcement in an effort to identify assets and to provide information regarding other individuals,” prosecutors said. “He has done so. The information has been of assistance to law enforcement in its ongoing investigation.”

    Ponzi schemes are toxic — and frequently are incredibly elaborate. Court documents in case after case show that the schemes frequently feature schemes within schemes and elaborate money-laundering networks. Criminals often go to fantastic lengths to disguise the conduits of the schemes, using shell companies and multiple bank accounts to funnel money and make the schemes difficult to reverse-engineer.

    FBI Director Robert Mueller has warned Congress at least twice this year about a “shadow” banking system criminals employ and an increasing reliance on “shell corporations” to commit crimes and hide from investigators.

    Cook’s scheme featured companies with confusingly similar names.

    Records show that Cook had a tie to a company the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf claimed to be its facilitator of offshore wires.

    KINGZ Capital Management, AVG’s purported facilitator, denied any affiliation with AVG, which has close ties to the AdSurfDaily autosurf. ASD is implicated in a Ponzi scheme alleged to involve tens of millions of dollars.

    AVG collapsed in June 2009, after running a virtually nonstop promotion that advertised matching bonuses of 200 percent for both recruits and their sponsors.

    The National Futures Association said last year that Cook was managing money for KINGZ. AVG made the claim KINGZ was its wire facilitator on May 4, 2008 — the same day the Obama administration announced a crackdown on offshore fraud.

  • ‘In God We Trust’ Securities Huckster Found Guilty In $17 Million Swindle; Byron Keith Brown Had ‘Fleet’ Of Luxury Cars; Feds Call Business ‘Tangled Financial Web Of Lies’

    A Virginia man who traded on religious sentiments and the motto printed on U.S. currency to fleece investors in a $17 million Ponzi and securities swindle potentially faces decades in prison after being found guilty in Maryland of wire-fraud and money-laundering charges.

    Byron Keith Brown bought at least 16 luxury or high-performance cars with investors’ money, including brands such as Lamborghini and Rolls-Royce, prosecutors said.

    Brown, 32, of Vienna, operated In God We Trust Financial Services (IGT) and used his websites to ask prospects to turn over $1 million at a time, prosecutors said. He formerly lived in Ellicott City, Md.

    A veteran IRS investigator said the case demonstrated that a huckster could create the appearance of success to mask “a tangled financial web of lies.”

    “Ponzi schemes can thrive for a time on false claims about how the money is being invested and where the returns are coming from,” said Rebecca Sparkman, special agent in charge of the IRS Criminal Investigations Unit in the District of Columbia field office

    “[B]ut that time is gone and as this verdict shows it is time for those responsible to face judgment,” Sparkman said.

    Brown, prosecutors said, filed bankruptcy in 1999 — but soon emerged with a tale of fabulous success that painted him as the head of an international firm that specialized in catering to wealthy investors from offices in Washington, D.C., Wilmington, Del., New York, and London, England.

    It was all an illusion, prosecutors said.

    “[H]e had rented a mailbox or services at a virtual office that provided telephone answering services and mail forwarding services to clients,” prosecutors said.

    And Brown “used computer software to create an illusion that the investor was logging into a banking website and viewing account information when in fact, the account numbers were made up,” prosecutors said.

    U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said the government, to date, has seized 16 high-end cars linked to Brown.

    “Byron Brown used the Internet to make it appear as if he were running an investment management business for wealthy investors, when in fact he was stealing millions of dollars from investors and using it to buy a fleet of luxury cars,” Rosenstein said.

    Included in Brown’s investor-funded haul were a 2004 Bentley, a 2005 Rolls-Royce Phantom, a 1936 Auburn Speedster, a 2007 BMW, a 1997 Jaguar, a 2006 Aston Martin, a 2007 Lamborghini, a 2008 Maserati, two Mercedes and a 2002 Ferrari, prosecutors said.

    “In addition to sentencing criminals to prison, our goal is to seize any assets purchased with criminal proceeds,” Rosenstein said.

    Brown was not licensed as a broker, dealer or investment adviser in Maryland, Virginia or the District of Columbia. The scheme operated between 2003 and 2009.

    America was dependent on the horse and buggy when the motto “IN GOD WE TRUST” became part of the national consciousness.

    The motto first appeared on the 1864 two-cent coin, the U.S. Department of the Treasury notes on its website. Abraham Lincoln was President at the time, and the United States was engaged in the Civil War against the breakaway South.

    On Nov 13, 1861, the Rev. M. R. Watkinson, Minister of the Gospel from Ridleyville, Pa., wrote to Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, observing that “the Almighty God” should be recognized in some form on U.S. coins.

    Chase acted almost instantly to make it happen, according to the Treasury Department, which had received many similar “appeals from devout persons throughout the country,” the Treasury Department notes.

    Watkinson reasoned a nation that did not acknowledge God one day might be regarded a nation of heathens, according to his letter to Chase.

    “From my hearth I have felt our national shame in disowning God as not the least of our present national disasters,” Watkinson wrote to Chase nearly 150 years ago.

    In a letter dated Nov. 20, 1861 — a week after the date on Watkinson’s letter — Chase instructed James Pollock, director of the Mint at Philadelphia, to prepare a motto for U.S. coinage.

    Here is how the letter read, according to the Treasury Department.

    Dear Sir: No nation can be strong except in the strength of God, or safe except in His defense. The trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins.

    You will cause a device to be prepared without unnecessary delay with a motto expressing in the fewest and tersest words possible this national recognition.

    The words “IN GOD WE TRUST” became the official U.S. motto by an Act of Congress in 1956, when Dwight Eisenhower was President. The words officially were added to paper currency, beginning in 1957.

    Brown operated at least three companies that used the “In God We Trust” theme, prosecutors said. Experts say scammers frequently use appeals to faith and patriotism to steal from investors or line them up to be fleeced in fraud schemes.

    Visit the Treasury Department website to read about the history of “IN GOD WE TRUST” on U.S. coins and currency.

  • BULLETIN: $200 Million Ponzi And Affinty-Fraud Scheme Alleged By Feds In New Jersey; Eli Weinstein Arrested By FBI

    UPDATED 2:40 P.M. EDT (U.S.A) The Newark Star-Ledger and the Asbury Park Press are reporting that New Jersey real-estate developer Eli Weinstein has been arrested by the FBI in a Ponzi and affinity-fraud case that may involve $200 million or more.

    Both newspapers had photographers on the scene as the arrest was made this morning.

    2:40 P.M. UPDATE: Weinstein is 35. He lives in Lakewood, N.J. Federal prosecutors, led by U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman, have issued a statement that describes the case as a Ponzi and affinity-fraud scheme targeting orthodox believers of the Jewish faith.

    “Weinstein is charged with offering an array of lucrative investment opportunities that served the single purpose of fattening his wallet,” Fishman said. “It is always offensive when someone steals from others to finance his own luxurious lifestyle, but it is especially galling to exploit a community with whom one shares an inherent trust.”

    A veteran FBI agent said the scheme was contemptible.

    “Based on the allegations in the criminal complaint – lies, threats, deliberate misrepresentations, and even counterfeit checks, it is clear to us that the defendants in this matter exploited the close community ties of the Orthodox Jewish Community for one goal: to steal money through an elaborate real estate and Ponzi scheme,” said Michael B. Ward, special agent in charge of the Newark division.

    “This investigation highlights the need for consumers to do their own homework before entering into any business arrangements and not simply take the word of the other partners,” Ward continued. “If something seems too good to be true, it almost always is.”

    Ward credited the IRS for assisting in the probe, saying its role was important in unmasking the scheme.

    “At its most basic level, this is a case about greed and the abuse of trust,” Ward said. “The subjects in this case did not utilize overly sophisticated fraud schemes, but rather took advantage of trusted relationships to persuade victims to invest in their staged real estate ventures, which were often supported by false and forged documents.”

    Also charged in the case was Vladimir Siforov, 43, of Manalapan, N.J. He “remains at large,” prosecutors said.

    Read the breaking-news coverage at the Star-Ledger site at NJ.com.

    Read the Asbury Park Press coverage at APP.com.

    Weinstein’s New Jersey Ponzi arrest was the second in the state in recent months to allegedly involve a spectacular sum of money.

    Nevin J. Shapiro, 41, of Miami Beach, Fla., was arrested in New Jersey in April on charges of running an $880 million Ponzi scheme involving a bogus wholesale grocery business.

    The alleged Weinstein and Shapiro schemes combined may involve more than $1 billion.