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Tag: senior citizen and ponzi schemes

  • BULLETIN: Las Vegas Man, 70, Arrested In Alleged Ponzi Scheme Targeting Fellow Senior Citizens; Hans P. Seibt Booked Into Clark County Jail; State Charges Him With 25 Counts Of Securities Fraud, 6 Counts Of Theft

    BULLETIN: The Ponzi cavalcade involving senior citizens continues . . .

    Nevada state authorities have arrested Hans P. Seibt of Las Vegas on Ponzi charges. He specifically was charged under state law with 25 counts of securities fraud and six counts of theft, amid allegations he targeted senior citizens.

    At 70, Seibt himself is a senior citizen. He was booked into the Clark County Jail, and is being held without bail.

    Seibt is expected to make a court appearance Monday, according to Clark County records.

    “Targeting senior citizens is particularly egregious,” said Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto.

    The office of Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller described Seibt’s alleged crimes as a real-estate Ponzi swindle affecting investors in Nevada and “several other states.”

    “So-called interest payments or distributions that are paid to some investors aren’t a guarantee that an investment is legitimate,” Miller said. “That’s the whole basis for a Ponzi scheme. Potential investors just can’t be careful enough, especially in the current economic environment.”

    Investors were promised returns of between 10 percent and 12 percent, but Seibt duped them, investigators said.

    “Seibt successfully solicited investments of $10,000 or more from his victims, offering them trust deeds, joint venture agreements, and subscription agreements, all of which were supposedly secured by parcels of land Seibt was holding in Nye County,” investigators said.

    But the value of the land was “grossly exaggerated in order to support Seibt’s claims to his victims,” investigators said.

    And Seibt also didn’t purchase the land as advertised. Instead, he “used the money to pay off other investors and for personal use,” investigators said.

    Seibt did business as HSLV Development Corp., and Clark and Nye County Development Corp., investigators said.

  • Senior Who Swindled Seniors In $18 Million Ponzi Scheme Sentenced To 108 Months In Federal Prison; Case Sends Message To ‘Con Artists,’ Top Federal Prosecutor Says

    Louis J. Borstelmann, a California senior citizen who swindled “elderly and retired” investors in Oregon and elsewhere in an $18 million Ponzi scheme, has been sentenced in Oregon to 108 months in federal prison, prosecutors said.

    Borstelmann is 69. Most of his victims resided in the area of Florence, Ore., although others hailed from Hawaii, Montana and Texas, the office of U.S. Attorney Dwight C. Holton of the District or Oregon said.

    “Borstelmann wreaked havoc on his victims — mostly older folks — stealing their retirement funds, their homes, even the nest eggs they’d set aside for their grandkids’ education,” said Holton. “We can’t get all the money back, but at least we can achieve some measure of justice — and let other con artists know that we will hold them accountable and send them to prison.”

    Not only did the victims suffer financial abuse, they also suffered emotional abuse, the region’s top IRS investigator said.

    “Hopefully, this prosecution provides them with some peace of mind in knowing that their suffering did not fall on deaf ears,” said Marcus Williams, special agent in charge of IRS Criminal Investigation for the Pacific Northwest.

    He was backed by a top FBI agent.

    “Borstelmann stole more than money from these vulnerable victims — he stole their hopes for the future,” said Alan J. Peters, acting special agent in charge of the FBI in Oregon. “These families worked their whole lives to be able to put their kids through college and have a safe, comfortable retirement. Now that is gone.”

    Borstelmann  ran a real-estate Ponzi through a California company known as Sunburst Associates Inc., prosecutors said.

  • Man, 79, Becomes Fugitive In Ponzi Scheme Case; Gerald J. Berke Wanted By FBI In Alleged $81 Million Caper

    Gerald Berke: Source: FBI (2011 photo).

    It is not unusual for senior citizens to operate Ponzi schemes — and here is another alleged example.

    Gerald J. “Jerry” Berke, 79, is wanted by the FBI for an alleged Ponzi caper in the Los Angeles area that fleeced about 500 investors out of more than $81 million, the agency said.

    Berke will turn 80 in September.

    The FBI has published a “Wanted” poster that includes three photos of Berke: one taken in 2008, one taken in 2009 and one taken in 2011. A federal judge issued an arrest warrant for Berke in January.

    Berke ran a purported “factoring” business in which investors believed they were financing accounts receivable and making loans to businesses. The business of GJB Enterprises was a “pretense,” the FBI said.

    Berke, a Canadian national, “is believed to have fled from the United States to Canada,” the FBI said. “He has been residing in the Vancouver area (British Columbia).”

    Investors were lured by the promise of high returns, the FBI said.

    From left to right: Berke in 2008, 2009 and 2011: Source: FBI.

    “Investors allegedly were told that factoring business does better in a bad economy and were promised an 18% return on investments,” the FBI said. “However, Berke allegedly used investors’ money to make payments to earlier investors and eventually stopped. Also, Berke is alleged to have paid for personal and business expenses using investors’ money.”

    The FBI is asking members of the public who have information on Berke to contact the agency or the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate.

    Filings by the court-appointed receiver in the case suggest Berke fled to Canada in July 2010. Shortly thereafter, he allegedly withdrew $22,000 from a bank account in Canada.

    In October 2010, a California state judge found Berke guilty of contempt of court for violating court orders.

    Wanted poster.

    Site of receiver Stephen J. Donell.