EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one of those stories of an investor wipeout that may leave you scratching your head and wondering if no person, institution or symbol of America is off-limits in the world of Ponzi criminals.
For starters, the scheme allegedly was targeted at least in part at Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) members in the Los Angeles area. If that’s not bad enough, the elementary school whose PTA members were targeted is named after Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the moon and an American hero.
And authorities also say the suspects in the alleged scheme also traded on the name of Disneyland to separate victims from their money.
Three California women, including one who already is in prison, swindled investors in an affinity-fraud Ponzi scheme that gathered $14 million, traded on the name of Disneyland and took advantage of parents whose children attended a school named after an American hero, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.
All three women were “actively” involved in the Parent-Teachers Association (PTA) at Armstrong Elementary School in Diamond Bar, Calif., the agency said. The school is named after astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, 80, the first man to set foot on the moon. Armstrong, a former Eagle Scout, also is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
One of the reasons the scam succeeded was that the women gained “the friendship and trust of investors during organized school events and social functions,” investigators said.
“In order to get money, many of the victims took out second mortgages on their homes, maxed out their credit cards and ‘invested’ their life savings,” investigators said.
Losses ranged from $5,000 to $208,000, investigators said.
“The victims were given serialized receipts commonly available in stationary stores,” investigators said.
Arrested in the alleged caper were Maricela Barajas, 41, and Juliana Menefee, 50. Both women resided in Diamond Bar and are being held in the Los Angeles County Jail. Barajas also is known as Maricela Torres.
The third suspect — Eva Perez, 51 — already was in custody. Perez previously was arrested for fraud by the Chino Police Department “and is currently incarcerated in the Central California Women’s Facility, California State Prison,” investigators said.
Perez pleaded guilty last year in San Bernardino County in the same fraud scheme that triggered the Los Angeles County probe and the filing of more charges against her. She was sentenced to 11 years in prison in the San Bernardino case.
Investors plowed about $14 million into the scheme after being told that the women had an exclusive deal to sell AltaDena Dairy products at Disneyland, Disney Hotels and to small retailers, investigators said.
About $4 million of the sum was “retained” by the thieving PTA mothers, and about $2.5 million “has not been directly accounted for” and may have been spent on vacations and gambling, investigators said.
Until its detection, the scheme succeeded in part because the PTA Moms recycled $10 million back to investors, thus creating the impression that the women were at the helm of a successful enterprise, investigators said.
Investors were told that cash was required to become an investor and that their money was safe and guaranteed. At least some of the more than 40 victims were told they’d receive a return of 100 percent, investigators said.
As the Ponzi was unraveling and payments stopped, the thieving PTA Moms “organized informational meetings, and attempted to pacify investors by explaining the delays in payment were a result of an internal audit of the business,” investigators said.
“The victims are mostly typical, hard-working people,” investigators said. “When they were interviewed by sheriff’s detectives, their main reaction was to emotionally describe their embarrassment that they fell for this scheme. They said they saw others making a lot of money and didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to make a better life for themselves and their families. They are in hopes that people who hear about what happened to them, will look for the warning signs that they ignored, and not have this happen to them. They also made the mistake of investing in people they thought they could trust.”