Michigan Ponzi schemes

“[Former State Rep. Brian] Palmer carried a cell phone provided by API and answered calls from potential investors even while on the House floor. To circumvent state security laws, Palmer assisted Ripley by providing documents to make the scheme appear legitimate and signed investment guarantees. And, with Palmer’s knowledge, Ripley used Palmer’s name and position […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: As the PP Blog reported on Aug. 6, Legisi HYIP Ponzi-scheme operator Gregory N. McKnight was sentenced to 188 months in federal prison. McKnight is 53. He was ordered taken into custody immediately after sentencing last week and is listed as “in transit” to an unspecified detention facility. Legisi was promoted in part […]

BULLETIN: A Michigan woman who allegedly hindered an investigation into her on-the-lam husband’s Ponzi scheme has been charged with lying to a police officer during the investigation of a crime, a felony under state law. M. Viktoria Wilson, 24, of Saginaw, was arrested yesterday by Saginaw Valley State University Police, the office of Michigan Attorney […]

BULLETIN: A joint investigation by offices of Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette and Commissioner Kevin Clinton of the Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation has led to criminal charges of racketeering against two men accused of targeting the elderly in a $9 million Ponzi scheme. Charged in the alleged caper were Jeffrey Ripley, 59, of […]

UPDATE: Jeffery (also cited as “Jeffrey”) L. Groendyke, the Michigan man ordered by a federal judge earlier this month to pay nearly $1.4 million in restitution and penalties in a Forex Ponzi case brought civilly by the CFTC, now has pleaded guilty to a criminal charge of wire fraud, federal prosecutors in the Western District […]

Jeffery L. Groendyke, the Michigan man accused by the CFTC in May of targeting people of faith and others in a Forex Ponzi scheme, has been ordered to pay $963,141 in restitution and a $420,000 civil penalty. U.S. District Judge Robert J. Jonker issued the order against Groendyke by consent, finding that he fraudulently solicited […]

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Matthew J. Gagnon, an alleged online pitchman for the Legisi HYIP Ponzi scheme, has been named in a criminal complaint filed by the U.S. Secret Service. Gagnon, 42, of Portland Ore., and Weslaco, Texas, was accused civilly by the SEC in 2010 of being “a danger to the investing public,” […]

BULLETIN: Edward May, 75, effectively has been sentenced to life in prison for orchestrating an elaborate Ponzi scheme that gathered about $350 million and fleeced 1,200 people. Many of his victims were fellow senior citizens, although May also altered the lives of younger victims. Prosecutors described the May Ponzi as the largest in the history […]

A Michigan man has been sued for fraud and misappropriation in yet-another alleged Forex Ponzi scheme, the CFTC said. Jeffery L. Groendyke of the Grand Rapids-area community of Middleville, Mich., gathered at least $953,305 since May 2010 and ripped off at least 54 customers through his at-home business known as JG Forex Fund (JGF), the […]

The senior-citizen Ponzi cavalcade and incredible paperwork maze continues: Edward May, 74, has pleaded guilty in Detroit to 59 counts of mail fraud in a case in which federal prosecutors alleged he rented office space in Lake Orion, Mich., and established 150 LLCs as part of a $200 million Ponzi scheme that operated for a […]