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Tag: Utah Department of Commerce Division of Securitie

  • 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.

  • British Fraudster Running Investment Swindle And Conducting Pitchfests In Utah Sent Email To Undercover Agent, Feds Say; John S. Dudley Pleads Gulity To Wire Fraud

    ponzinews1John S. Dudley, a citizen of Great Britain, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud in federal court in Utah in an investment-fraud case that featured the presence of an undercover agent who’d received email from Dudley, the office of U.S. Attorney David B. Barlow said.

    The agent — from the Utah Department of Commerce’s Division of Securities — was described as “UA” in court papers, prosecutors said.

    As part of a plea agreement, Dudley will not contest a restitution order for more than $6.8 million, prosecutors said. When Dudley completes his sentence, prosecutors expect to deport him under the terms of the plea. Prosecutors have recommended a prison sentence of five years.

    Dudley was accused in 2011 of a Ponzi scheme that married multiple components, including pitchfests for “various investment programs, including a foreign exchange trading program, mining speculation, European and domestic stock options and commodity trading, and a human jetpack rocket suit,” prosecutors said at the time.

    The pitchfests were described as “bounce nights” or “Tashi group meetings,” prosecutors said at the time.

    From a statement by prosecutors on the Dudley guilty plea (italics added):

    The indictment alleged Dudley made a variety of representations to potential investors, including telling them they could expect monthly returns of 5-10 percent; that he had not suffered a trading loss since 1978; that investors’ funds would be used exclusively for investment purposes; that he had personally done very well in his investments and had never made less than 5 percent per month over the last 30 years; that investors’ money was backed by a “senior life settlement policy” that reduced or eliminated investors’ risk of loss; and that investing with him was an exclusive opportunity with only a limited number of investors allowed to invest with him at one time.

    As a part of the plea agreement reached with federal prosecutors, Dudley admitted he sent an e-mail to an individual, identified as U.A. in the plea agreement, with the subject line “Re: Castle Creek Bank Details.” He admitted that the e-mail was a part of his attempt to execute the fraud scheme by obtaining money under false representations. Investor U.A. is identified in the indictment as a Utah Department of Commerce’s Division of Securities investigator acting in an undercover capacity in the indictment.