Jeffrey Lane Mowen

BULLETIN: Utah Ponzi schemer Jeffrey Lane Mowen has been ordered by a federal judge to pay more than $18 million in a civil case that sparked a criminal probe and resulted in allegations that Mowen had hatched a murder-for-hire plot from a U.S. jail after he was extradited from Panama in 2009. The FBI worked […]

UPDATED 7:43 A.M. ET (MARCH 9, U.S.A.) If ever there has been a cautionary tale for HYIP pitchmen, it is Jeffrey Lane Mowen’s Utah Ponzi scheme. Mowen and at least six promoters ended up inspiring litigation on multiple fronts, with Mowen charged criminally. At issue was Mowen’s Forex Ponzi scheme, which allegedly was funded in […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: The PP Blog has covered a number of stories in which U.S. residents living overseas were extradited to the United States to face Ponzi charges. The case against Ronald Paul Shade is another one — and it’s one that demonstrates that an extradition can occur even if a defendant is not charged with […]

America’s Ponzi culture now has spawned a taxidermy auction from “assets recovered in one of the largest alleged Ponzi fraud cases in Utah,” according to website of the auctioneer. Among the items up for bid are a “full body African lion,” Cape Horn buffalo, African antelope and hyena, wildebeest and other exotic animals. Forty-three firearms […]

A grand jury has returned an indictment against a suburban Philadelphia man, accusing him of operating a Ponzi scheme that gathered at least $95 million and fleeced investors of more than $25 million. Charged criminally with mail fraud and money-laundering was Donald Anthony Young, who also has been sued by the SEC. Meanwhile, Matthew Pizzolato […]

UPDATED 5:23 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) A California man has been arrested by the FBI and IRS criminal investigators in an alleged Ponzi scheme involving $12 million. Peter Jerald Frommer was taken into custody this morning, after a federal grand jury returned a 17-count indictment yesterday. Frommer, 34, formerly of Malibu, was charged with two counts […]

Just how far will people go to avoid getting caught or convicted of operating a Ponzi scheme or to reclaim funds lost in a Ponzi scheme — or to send a message that designed to rattle nerves? There have been several recent Ponzi or financial-fraud cases with more than just a hint of violent intent. […]

A Utah man arrested in Panama on Ponzi charges, brought back to the United States to stand trial and later implicated in a murder-for-hire plot owned so many cars and motorcycles that the U.S. Marshal’s Service has been given permission to sell them prior to the trial. Jeffrey Lane Mowen had acquired more than 200 […]

You’ve seen the ads or heard the pitches trying to persuade you to put money in “offshore” ventures such as the AdViewGlobal, AdGateWorld and MegaLido autosurfs. You’ve been told they were safe. You’ve been told the people who run them are out of the reach of U.S. securities regulators and law-enforcement agencies. And you’ve been […]

UPDATED 9:44 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) A Louisiana man has been charged in a 64-count indictment with operating a $20 million Ponzi scheme that fleeced retirees, federal prosecutors said today. So many fraud counts were filed against Matthew B. Pizzolato that he faces more than 1,100 years in prison if convicted of all of them. As […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: In August, a poster here who defended autosurf Ponzi schemes demanded readers to “show me one time where the [U.S. government] has even started a lawsuit or ‘gone after’ a company off shore.” The post concerned the AdVentures4U (ADV4U) autosurf, which, like a number of autosurfs, claimed legal ties to Panama. Promoters said […]