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Tag: Safevest LLC

  • BULLETIN: AdSurfDaily/OneX Pitchwoman Rayda Roundy Faces Proposed Fine Of $81,250 In Utah For Alleged Unlawful Sale Of ‘Safevest LLC’ Securities In Ponzi Scheme Targeted At Christians

    breakingnews72BULLETIN: (UPDATED 4:58 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The state of Utah has proposed that Rayda Roundy of Hurricane be fined $81,250 and ordered to cease and desist from selling securities unlawfully in the state for her alleged role in hawking Safevest LLC.

    In May 2008, the SEC described Safevest as a fraud- and Ponzi-like scheme that had gathered at least $25 million in part by targeting the Christian community.

    Roundy later became a figure in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme story. In August 2008, the U.S. Secret Service described ASD as a massive Ponzi scheme operating online. By April 2012, Roundy was tied in court filings in the ASD case to the mysterious “OneX” scheme, which federal prosecutors described as a financial pyramid that was recycling money in ASD-like fashion.

    ASD’s Andy Bowdoin started pitching OneX while he was awaiting trial on Ponzi-related charges flowing from the ASD case. Federal prosecutors said ASD had gathered at least $119 million in its scam. Bowdoin was sentenced in August 2012 to 78 months in federal prison.

    In September 2008 — just a month after the Secret Service had  seized more than $80 million in the ASD Ponzi case — the Utah Division of Securities accused Roundy in a civil filing of hawking Safevest unlawfully. Roundy denied the assertions.

    The case dragged on from 2008 into 2013. Roundy missed a hearing scheduled for March 6 after being warned the presiding officer would hold her in default if she did not attend, the state said.

    Utah proposed that the fine could be used to provide restitution. Roundy’s alleged Safevest target was described only as “ME.”

    In August 2011, the court-appointed receiver in the Safevest case announced that he “does not anticipate any distributions to the investor/victims as no significant funds have been recovered or are anticipated.”

    News about the proposed sanctions against Roundy occur against the backdrop of Investor Alerts or cease-and-desist orders being issued in at least 33 states and provinces in the United States and Canada against the Profitable Sunrise “program.”

    Profitable Sunrise allegedly was targeted at Christians. Its website has been offline for two weeks.

  • BULLETIN: SEC Charges ‘Sovereign International Group LLC’ Amid Allegations It Funded Ponzi Payout With Cash Infusion From 93-Year-Old Boyfriend Of Accused Fraudster’s Elderly Mother; Arthur Weiss, Ronald Abernathy Charged In Bizarre Scheme That Allegedly Claimed Ownership Of $50 Million Note From ‘U.S. Financial Agency LLC’

    BULLETIN: Two men have been charged by the SEC with fraud in an alleged Ponzi scheme that features allegations that read like fiction — although the agency says they are true.

    Among the SEC’s spectacular claims is that Ponzi payments to investors were made after the 93-year-old boyfriend of the elderly mother of one of the scheme’s accused operators deposited $100,000  with the scheme.  The scheme also traded fraudulently on the names of Major League Baseball, Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, and Ted Turner, founder of CNN.

    Charged in the alleged caper were Ronald Abernathy of Scottsdale, Arizona, and Arthur Weiss of Pasadena, Calif., and Delray Beach, Fla. Also charged was their company: Sovereign International Group LLC (SIG) of Nevada.

    Abernathy is 66; Weiss is 61. Both men were pitchmen for other fraud schemes, and used a deposit made by the elderly boyfriend of Weiss’s elderly mother to make payments to investors in their most recent scheme, the SEC charged.

    At the time the elderly man deposited $100,000 with Weiss and Abernathy, the SEC charged, their bank accounts “collectively held less than $500.”

    The elderly man’s deposit subsequently was appropriated to make $14,450 in Ponzi payments to earlier investors, the SEC charged. All in all, the agency alleged, the scheme gathered $560,000 through the sale of fraudulent promissory notes and investment contracts.

    When investors demanded the return of their funds, Weiss and Abernathy piled on the excuses. Investors were told the men traded in “precious ore concentrate,” along with “multi-million and multi-billion dollar financial instruments” and “fine art,” the SEC charged.

    But it was all just a massive scam — one that included a claim that the men were in “possession of a ‘medium term note’ issued by an entity called ‘U.S. Financial Agency LLC’ with a purported face value” of $50 million, the SEC charged.

    “The U.S. Financial Agency Note is worthless,” the SEC charged.

    Prior to issuing a Summer 2009 update to investors, “Abernathy attempted to deposit the U.S. Financial Agency Note with Banc of America Investment Services,” the SEC charged.  “BAI rejected the worthless U.S. Financial Agency Note.  After this rejection by BAI and despite their knowledge that the U.S. Financial Agency Note was worthless, the Defendants issued the Summer 2009 update which falsely told investors that SIG had been assigned and was in possession of more than $50 million in corporate assets.”

    As payments to investors became further delayed, the men falsely told an investor that they “were in the final stages of a deal that would result in a $15,000,000 to $20,000,000 payout to SIG and that the only thing delaying the payout is the U.S. Department of Homeland Security which was following its standard procedure to make sure that the money involved in the deal had no ties to terrorist organizations or drug trafficking,” the SEC charged.

    “SIG, in its entire existence, has not earned any profits, realized any returns or generated any revenue from any business operations,” the SEC said. “SIG’s only income has consisted of money received from investors.”

    The SIG scam began in “late 2008,” the SEC charged.

    Previous scams in which Abernathy and Weiss were associated were identified by the SEC as “G-5 Global,” “Safevest LLC” and “The Omicron Group LLC.”

    Those three scams led to losses of about $14.7 million, the SEC said.

    Read the SEC complaint.