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Tag: Robert Miracle

  • Robert Miracle, One Of First Criminal Ponzi Defendants In Post-Madoff Era, Sentenced To 13 Years In Prison For Oil-And-Gas Scheme; Co-Defendants International Fugitives Wanted By INTERPOL

    Fahimi Fisal (left) and Mukhtar Kechik. Source: INTERPOL.

    Ponzi schemer Robert Miracle, who scammed investors in a $65.3 million oil-and-gas fraud operating in the Seattle area, knows he’ll bed down tonight in custody at the SeaTac Federal Detention Center in Washington state.

    His co-defendants, though, are less certain of their sleeping spots — and still have to worry about knocks at doors in the middle of the night.

    Fahimi Fisal and Mukhtar Kechik — both Malaysian nationals of middle age — are international fugitives wanted by INTERPOL. Fisal is 40; Kechik is 54. There are “Wanted” posters in each of their names.

    Miracle, 50, Bellevue, Wash., was sentenced this week to 13 years in federal prison, but he already was in custody. While awaiting trial in May 2009, his bail was revoked for not complying with the conditions of his release.

    In February 2009 — just two months after the $65 billion Bernard Madoff caper came to the fore and the word Ponzi became a daily part of the national and international dialogue — Miracle, Fisal and Kechik were charged in in a 23- count indictment alleging conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, money-laundering and tax evasion. The criminal case against Miracle and his co-defendants was one of the first major prosecutions of the post-Madoff era.

    Many towns across the United States now have their own individual “mini-Madoffs,” and the alleged schemers are accused of consuming individual and family wealth on a local, regional, national or international scale, taking wrecking balls to churches, charities and endowments — and leaving Ponzi pain on the doorsteps of hundreds of thousands of people.

    The Miracle scheme “ruined people’s lives,” prosecutors said, quoting U.S. District Judge James L. Robart, who sentenced Miracle. Miracle pleaded guilty to mail fraud and tax evasion.

    Prosecutors said he operated companies purportedly involved in oil development in Indonesia, and sold “shares” in ventures known as Laramie Petroleum Inc., MCube Petroleum Inc., Diski Limited Liability Co., Basilam Limited Liability Co. and Halmahera-Rembang Limited Liability Co.

    “Miracle and his co-defendants represented to investors that various companies were making money from oil field development and services on oil and gas fields in Indonesia,” prosecutors said. “In fact, the proceeds of later investors were used to pay off the investments of earlier investors in the form of a ‘ponzi’ scheme.”

  • 4 Ponzi Probes Spotlighted In Seattle; Cases Involve ‘Phony Business Plans’ With Sports Tickets, Point-Of-Sale Machines, Oil Fields, Aircraft Parts

    EDITOR’S NOTE: If you’re keeping a “Bubba Blue” notebook on the various ways to serve up a Ponzi scheme — as opposed to shrimp — these Ponzi investigations in Washington state might deserve an entry. The story below encapsulates four major cases. It also includes a link to the charging document in the Rhonda Breard Ponzi case, a fifth major probe in the Seattle area. The Breard case is not summarized below. We’ll publish a separate story on it in the future.

    Two new Ponzi schemes have emerged in Greater Seattle, and two other cases continue to be untangled, federal prosecutors said. The four cases combined involve more than $80 million, according to records.

    James Liddell, 55, of Seattle, remains at large after being indicted last week. Prosecutors said Liddell was indicted for a scheme in which he persuaded 13 investors to hand over a total of $3 million for his purported business of refurbishing point-of-sale machines and selling them to a drug-store chain.

    Liddell operated a company known as Payright Merchant Services, and showed investors “forged sales agreements and purchase orders” to pull off the scheme, prosecutors said.

    No machines were ever bought or sold to the Seattle retailer, and there were no contracts for any such sales, according to the indictment. Some of the money was used to pay “returns” to earlier investors, but Liddell used $1.2 million for his own benefit, prosecutors said.

    Read the Lidell indictment.

    Separately, Lorenzo V. Molina Jr., 49, of Sammamish, was indicted in a Ponzi case in which he is accused of telling investors his company rehabilitated aircraft parts through third-party vendors and sold the parts at a profit to airlines.

    Molina formerly worked for Boeing, but his purported parts business was a sham that gathered $3.6 million from investors duped by fraudulent documents, prosecutors said.

    About $1.7 million was returned to investors, but Molina “used the rest of the money for things such as a grand piano, private school tuition for his children, horses and real estate in Issaquah, Maple Valley, Fall City and Arizona,” prosecutors said.

    Western Washington’s top federal prosecutor said the Molina and Liddell schemes worked because they were targeted at friends and neighbors.

    “As these indictments demonstrate, Ponzi schemes are not limited to financial advisors,” said U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan. “Investment brokers such as Bernie Madoff and Rhonda Breard make headlines, but in these cases it was literally ‘the guy next door,’ who bilked friends and neighbors. Each took in millions for a purported business plan, and then fraudulently used the money for his own benefit.”

    Read the Molina indictment.

    Durkan provided updates on two other Seattle-area cases.

    Kevin A. Halverson, 51, of Bothell, was indicted in February on charges of running a Ponzi scheme involving “high profile” sports tickets and tickets for other major events. Venues for the ticketing scheme included the Super Bowl, the Indianapolis 500, concerts and shows in Las Vegas, according to court records.

    The scheme collected $10 million. Prosecutors said Halverson “purchased a small number of tickets to make the business appear legitimate, but primarily used investor money to pay off earlier investors in the manner of a typical Ponzi scheme.”

    Read the Halverson indictment.

    Meanwhile, the Robert Miracle Ponzi scheme case also is proceeding, with sentencing set for October. Miracle, 49, of Bellevue, has pleaded guilty to mail fraud and tax evasion in a scheme involving Indonesian oil wells.

    “Miracle represented to investors in his companies that they were making money from oil field development and services on oil and gas fields in Indonesia,” prosecutors said. “In fact, the proceeds of later investors were used to pay off the investments of earlier investors.

    “Between September 2004 and October 2007, Miracle took in more than $65.3 million and paid out $36.7 million as dividends to investors. The remaining [money] — some $28.6 million — was used in part for efforts to develop oil and gas on fields in Indonesia, as well as to pay for a lavish lifestyle for Miracle and his cohorts,” prosecutors said.

  • Yet Another Senior Citizen Charged In Ponzi Scheme

    ponzinewsIs it mere coincidence? Or is “Ponzi scheme operator” so lucrative that people made it a secret career choice years ago and are being outed because of the shrinking economy?

    Another senior citizen has been charged in a Ponzi scheme, and this time it’s a woman. Judith Zabalaoui, 71, is accused of an elaborate scheme in which she set up fraudulent investment companies, used UPS stores to trick customers into thinking they were brick-and-mortar firms, created “fictitious employees” and spun a web of deception for years, prosecutors said.

    The UPS stores were in Colorado and Delaware, but Zabalaoui ran the scheme out of Alabama and Louisiana, prosecutors said. To pull off the deception, she called UPS mailboxes “suites,” and promised investors “guaranteed” returns of up to 26 percent.

    Zabalaoui took in at least $3 million in the scheme. (Read details at Ponzi News.)

    Here are the names of several other seniors implicated in recent Ponzi schemes:

    • Bernard Madoff, 70.
    • Arthur Nadel, 76.
    • Richard S. Piccoli, 82.
    • Ronald Keith Owens, 73.
    • James Blackman Roberts, 71.
    • Andy Bowdoin, 74.

    Another Ponzi News story you might want to check out involves Robert Miracle. Prosecutors said he dummied up his business résumé, wooing fraud victims by claiming he’d once been employed at NASA and Disney.

    Call him a space mouse — one who took in $65 million, prosecutors said.