PatrickPretty.com

Tag: U.S. District Judge Christine M. Arguello

  • BULLETIN: Mantria Ponzi Scheme Pitchmen Hit With Millions Of Dollars In Disgorgement And Penalties — And Principals Ordered To Pay Tens Of Millions

    Mantria CEO Troy Wragg in a music video by ICEBLOC.

    BULLETIN: Two pitchmen for the Mantria Corp. “green” Ponzi scheme have been ordered to pay millions of dollars in disgorgement and penalties, including a purported wealth coach who advised people who contacted him after the 2009 collapse of Mantria to join the Trump Network MLM “opportunity.”

    Mantria purportedly was an environmentally friendly investment opportunity. In reality, the SEC said, it was a massive Ponzi scheme that was selling unregistered securities through unregistered broker-dealers.

    Any returns paid to investors “were funded almost exclusively from other investors’ funds,” the SEC said.

    Wayde M. McKelvy of Speed of Wealth LLC was ordered by U.S. District Judge Christine M. Arguello of the District of Colorado to pay $6,273,632.78 in disgorgement, interest of $869,141.87 and a civil penalty of $6,273,632.78.

    McKelvy, an MLM pitchman who also was pushing Mantria, described himself as a wealth coach with “Wealthalete[s]” as pupils and prospects.

    McKelvy’s former wife — Donna McKelvy — was ordered to pay $429,731.84 in disgorgement, interest of $55,172.93 and a civil penalty of $214,865.92.

    Arguello ordered even greater disgorgement and penalties against Mantria principals Troy B. Wragg and Amanda E. Knorr.

    “The Court ordered Wragg and Knorr to pay $37,031,035.36 in disgorgement plus interest of $3,713,772.06 jointly and severally with Mantria Corporation and a civil penalty of $37,031,035.36 each,” the SEC said today.

    All in all, Arguello ordered more than $135 million in monetary relief in the Mantria/Speed of Wealth case, the SEC said.

    The agency brought the Mantria Ponzi case in 2009, saying the “promoters fraudulently exaggerated Mantria’s green initiatives and used high-pressure tactics to convince investors to chase the promise of lucrative returns.”

    Strangeness marked the early days of the Mantria case. When reporters contacted Wayde McKelvy by email for comment, they received back a pitch for the Trump Network.

    “I am totally focused on one thing right now which I believe will be very, very fun and the opportunity to put money in your pocket by owning you’re [sic] own business with the help of ‘The Donald,” one of the McKelvy pitches claimed.

    Among other things, Mantria traded on the name of former President Bill Clinton, along with a host of other politicians and celebrities. It is not unusual for scams to attach their names to prominent individuals.

     

     

  • URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Judge Declares Mantria Corp. A ‘Smoke And Mirrors’ Ponzi Scheme, Says Troy Wragg And Amanda Knorr-Led Firm Acted With ‘Sociopathic Greed’; Defendants ‘Shamelessly’ Raised $54.5 Million Through ‘Blatant Lies’

    Screen shot: Troy Wragg, whom the SEC said was a manager at a janitorial company before becoming CEO of Mantria Corp., next to President Clinton at the annual meeting on the Clinton Global Initiative in New York on Sept. 25, 2009.

    URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: Using direct, no-nonsense language, U.S. District Judge Christine M. Arguello has ruled Mantria Corp. a Ponzi scheme that operated with “sociopathic greed” to defraud investors of millions of dollars.

    Some investors were encouraged to drain equity in their homes to invest with Mantria, according to the ruling.

    The ruling was a straight-line win for the SEC, which charged the firm, its principals and chief pitchman in November 2009 amid allegations that Mantria had orchestrated a colossal fraud targeted at people interested in “green” energy and protecting the environment. Mantria executives Troy Wragg and Amanda Knorr were charged in the caper, as was pitchman Wayde McKelvy of an entity known as “Speed of Wealth LLC.”

    Arguello found that Mantria had scammed more than $54.5 million “by egregiously, recklessly, knowingly, and shamelessly perpetrating a fraudulent scheme” that used “misrepresentations, omissions, and blatant lies to induce unsuspecting and unwitting victim investors to liquidate the equity in their homes and take out bank loans to invest in Defendants’ scheme, which was nothing more than smoke and mirrors.”

    The judge’s ruling specifically points to internal Mantria emails uncovered by the SEC during the probe.

    One email from Wragg to McKelvy read, “Mantria Speed of Wealth = MSOW = Many Souls Owe Wayde.” Another from McKelvy to Wragg allegedly touting seminar registrations and a new crop of suckers read, “110 registered for tonight 75% names I don’t recognize. Let’s blow them away my brother!” An email attributed to Knorr read, “Let’s just make some f*****g money.”

    Mantria traded in part on the name of former President Bill Clinton, who once presented Wragg an award for commitment to the environment. Prospective investors were shown a video that included footage of Clinton and other famous politicians and business figures.

    Fraud schemes often spread virally by planting the seed that famous people endorse the “opportunities” when they do not. In fraud case case after fraud case, celebrity endorsements, which are used to disarm skeptics and create positive feelings, have been manufactured out of wholecloth.

    In the alleged AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme, for instance, the U.S. Secret Service said promoters claimed that ASD President Andy Bowdoin had received an important award from then-President George W. Bush. The “award” actually was a memento for campaign donations to the National Republican Congressional Committee, according to court filings.

    The Secret Service is known to have seized a significant volume of email during the ASD probe. Some of it has been described in court filings as incriminating to Bowdoin.

    Reporters who emailed McKelvy for comment after the SEC brought it charges against Mantria and Speed of Wealth received invitations to join the Trump Network multilevel-marketing opportunity.

    “YOU MUST START YOUR OWN BUSINESS Renee!” McKelvy advised a reporter in one email, according to the Denver Business Journal. “What You Have Been Taught About Building Wealth is DEAD WRONG!”

    Read the Mantria ruling on Leagle.com.