Tag: SEC
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KABOOM! FTC Says ‘Medical Discount’ Hucksters Used Images Of Obama, Words From Congressional Speech To Fleece Customers; Receiver Already Has Seized Website; Feds, 24 States Launch Fraud Crackdown
EDITOR’S NOTE: Some readers will recall that one of the Secret Service’s allegations in the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case is that pitchmen tried to sanitize the scheme by making false claims that ASD President Andy Bowdoin had received an award for business acumen from President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Others will recall…
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MORE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS FOR HYIP SCAMMERS? SEC Whacks Another ‘Small’ Ponzi; Agency Says Firm Used Asset ‘Freeze’ Ruse To String Along Victims
EDITOR’S NOTE: The SEC complaint against Candice D. Campbell is yet-another case apt to cause unease in the incongruous worlds of online HYIP, autosurf and investment fraudsters. Among the allegations against Campbell, a purported day-trader and “CFO” of an unincorporated, Canton, Mich.-based company known as CJ’s Financial, is that she lied to investors and used…
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EXPLOSIVE REVELATION: FBI, IRS Find More Than $400,000 In Stashed Loot In Trevor Cook Ponzi Case, Including More Than $200,000 In $100 Bills, Gold Coins, Watches, Baseball Cards
Trevor Cook’s brother was hiding more than $400,000 in cash and valuables from a $190 million Ponzi scheme, according to an extraordinary statement by the court-appointed receiver in the case. The loot was found July 23 — after Trevor Cook, whose plea agreement in the case required him to submit to a lie-detector test if…
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SEC: Felons, Recidivists Pushed ‘Green’ Energy Securities Swindle Through California ‘Boiler Room’; 6 People Charged In $11 Million Fraud Case
About 200 investors turned over $11 million to a boiler-room operation selling investments in a purported “green” energy company, the SEC said. The alleged swindle in which Kensington Resources Inc. sold unregistered shares of American Environmental Energy Inc. (AEEI) was pulled off by a convicted felon with the help of a recidivist securities offender, the SEC…
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MORE BAD NEWS FOR PONZI PURVEYORS: Upstart Ponzi Operator Sued By SEC After Assists From FINRA, Texas State Securities Board, Agency Says; Gregory Todd Froning Confronts Civil, Administrative Actions
EDITOR’S NOTE: Online HYIP and autosurf purveyors and their fellow “mini-Madoffs” may find the brick-and-mortar case of Gregory Todd Froning at once unsettling and instructive. In yet-another development apt to create unease in the HYIP and autosurf Ponzi worlds, a new court action by the SEC demonstrates that even “small” operators in the universe of…
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Judge Extends Asset Freeze In Matt Gagnon Fraud Case; Issues Order To Preserve Evidence And Require Weekly Financial Report To SEC
A federal judge has extended the freeze on the assets of a website operator accused by the SEC of shilling for a Ponzi schemer and then trying to extort money from the schemer when the fraud was collapsing. Severe restrictions placed on Mazu.com operator Matt Gagnon by U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh of the…
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Peter C. Son Sentenced To 15 Years In Forex Ponzi Scheme That Targeted Korean-Americans; Courtroom Spectator Heckled Scammer, Declaring He Deserved Death For Crime
A California man accused of bilking Korean-Americans in an $80 million Forex Ponzi scheme was sentenced yesterday to 15 years in federal prison. Prior to the sentencing of Peter C. Son of Danville, a courtroom spectator yelled in Korean that “You’ve got to kill that bastard!” according to the San Francisco Chronicle. In June 2009,…
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BULLETIN: Receiver Says Trevor Cook’s Wife Received $103,000 Payout By Wire Day After SEC Came To Minneapolis For ‘Surprise’ Investigation
Gina Cook, the wife of acknowledged Ponzi schemer Trevor Cook, received a wire transfer of $103,437 on June 23, 2009, one day after six attorneys and accountants from the SEC began a “surprise” investigation at the scheme’s Minneapolis headquarters and served Trevor Cook with a subpoena, according to the court-appointed receiver in the case. Receiver…
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SEC: ‘Offshore Does Not Mean Off-Limits’; Agency Charges Famous U.S. Firm With Violating Foreign Corrupt Practices Act In Alleged Bribery Scheme
BULLETIN: The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged General Electric Co. and two foreign subsidiaries in an alleged kickback scheme with the Iraq government “to win contracts to supply medical equipment and water purification equipment.” Robert Khuzami, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, did not mince words when announcing the charges and a settlement…
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PONZI NEWS/NOTES: Judge Says Matthew Pizzolato ‘Swindled The Salt Of The Earth’; Feds Allege New Scheme In New York; Henri Zogaib Arrested Again In Florida
EDITOR’S NOTE: The briefs below summarize recent developments in Ponzi cases or actions in new Ponzi cases. Sentenced: Matthew B. Pizzolato, 26, Tickfaw, La. Ripped off senior citizens in Ponzi scheme. In sentencing Pizzolato to 30 years in federal prison, U. S. District Judge Lance M. Africk said Pizzolato “stole from hard working Americans†and…