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Tag: Watergate

  • PAT KILEY: ‘There Seems To Be Some Distortions’ In SEC Recordings Of Radio Show; Meanwhile, Accused Schemer Says Trevor Cook ‘Acted Like Pontius Pilate’

    Trevor Cook (pictured) employed a "sick" web designer who declared himself "Trevor's bitch," according to former radio host Pat Kiley. Kiley says he also employed the designer, but fired him after determining he had a high "sleaze factor." Kiley compared Cook to Pontius Pilate.

    In pro se court filings, accused Minnesota schemer Pat Kiley says recordings of his radio show presented on CD for his examination and verification by the SEC in the civil case against him are unreliable. Meanwhile, Kiley described his civil co-defendant Trevor Cook as acting “like Pontius Pilate,” the Roman prefect many Christians believe authorized the crucifixion of Jesus.

    Kiley, 72, was accused by the SEC in 2009 of hawking the scam on his radio show, “Follow The Money.” The same phrase became part of the American lexicon during the Watergate-era administration of President Richard Nixon, when it was uttered by “Deep Throat,” a then-unidentified source used by Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward. The Watergate scandal also featured recordings — and those recordings led to Nixon’s downfall.

    The SEC recordings of his radio show are not fair and accurate, Kiley advised a federal judge, because of dozens of “distortions” in the recordings.

    “There seems to be some distortions,” Kiley said repeatedly, referring to recordings of his radio programs in January, February, March, April, May and June of 2009.

    And because of those distortions, which occurred at various times in the recordings, “Kiley denies that the file . . . is fair and accurate,” Kiley said.

    Cook, who was charged criminally, is serving a 25-year sentence in federal prison. Both Cook and Kiley were sued by the SEC and CFTC, and the civil portion of the case has taken a turn toward the bizarre.

    On May 19, Kiley asked a federal judge to sanction a CFTC attorney $1,000 and make the penalty payable to Kiley. Kiley asserts the CFTC lawyer filed an “offensive” pleading.

    Yesterday, in filings in the SEC case, Kiley raised the issues of the purported distortions in the recordings and compared Cook to Pilate. The Pilate comparison occurred after the SEC asked Kiley to admit he was responsible for the content of the PatKiley.com website.

    “Kiley denies any responsibility for the content of the website at www.patkiley.com,” he advised the judge. “Kiley not only had to contend with Cook’s control of the website but also had to contend with another of Cook’s ‘cast of characters’ . . . ”

    A member of that cast was a web designer, Kiley said.

    Kiley said he had hired the designer, but fired him “after about a month or so” because of his high “sleaze factor.”

    Kiley did not say precisely how he calculated sleaze factors when making personnel decisions. But he claimed that he “caught” the designer saying things to prospective clients that “were not accurate” and causing problems on the website.

    After Kiley fired the designer for his purportedly high sleaze factor, the designer went to work for Cook, Kiley claimed.

    Kiley further became alienated with the designer after the designer described himself as “Trevor’s bitch,” Kiley claimed.

    The “bitch” remark, Kiley said, “was a very ‘sick’ comment for any human being to make about themselves.”

    “By this time Kiley was totally fed up with the website because it had become nothing more than a ‘literary bordello,’” Kiley informed the judge.

    Kiley concluded his answer to the SEC by giving it advice on how to conduct itself in court.

    “Kiley is wondering if the SEC uses ‘confusion’ as a strategy and if so, then Kiley recommends that they change direction,” he said in yesterday’s filing.

  • CFTC: South Carolina Pastor Ran Forex Ponzi Scheme From House Of Worship; Historic Church Property In Charleston Has Seen It All — From Lincoln Presidency And Civil War To Kennedy Assassination And Election Of Obama

    The religious facility that ultimately became St. John’s Reformed Episcopal Church has seen a lot of history in its 160 years on Anson Street in Charleston, S.C. Construction predated the Civil War by 11 years. The facility opened in 1850 as the Anson Street Chapel for black Presbyterians, according to records maintained by the Charleston County Public Library.

    During this time, the United States was transitioning after the sudden death in office of President Zachary Taylor in 1850. Taylor was the 12th President of the United States. He was succeeded in office by Vice President Millard Fillmore, who never gained election in his own right after filling out Taylor’s term because voters in the North viewed him as willing to appease the South on the issue of slavery.

    When the Anson Street Chapel opened in 1850, Abraham Lincoln was a prairie lawyer in Illinois, his ascension to the Presidency still four administrations away and the Great Civil War still more than decade away. The church, renamed St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in 1861, was hit by shells during the Civil War and “badly damaged,” but was rebuilt, according to library records. The facility survived to serve congregants for more than 100 years, before closing in 1965 — two years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and 20 years after the end of World War II.

    St. John’s Reformed Episcopal Church bought the property and restored it in 1971, during the Vietnam War-era administration of President Richard M. Nixon and about a year before the word “Watergate” became part of the national consciousness. Barack Obama was 10 years old in 1971, 37 years away from his election as the 44th President and 28 administrations removed from Lincoln’s Civil War-era Presidency.

    Now the church has seen another sort of history: Its pastor, the Rev. Ronald Satterfield, has been accused by the CFTC of operating a Forex Ponzi scheme from inside the facility. One of the company’s he allegedly formed — Graham Street Forex Group LLC — used the church’s address of 91 Anson Street, according to documents.

    Co-defendant Nicholas Bos of Ludington, Mich., used a business card that depicted a “one million dollar bill” and described the scam as an opportunity to earn “24% a year” as a participant in “Special programs,” CFTC alleged.

    Also named a defendant was an entity known as Shore-2-Summit Financial LLC.

    Satterfield “independently solicited acquaintances, members of his church congregation and their friends and family, and others in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Maryland, for funds to trade forex,” CFTC alleged.

    The scam operated “at least” between March 2006 and March 2009, CFTC alleged.

    To conceal the fraud, “Satterfield and Bos issued false customer account statements reflecting the promised returns and forex trading profits, when in fact Satterfield’s forex trading resulted in losses almost every month,” CFTC said.

    “The false statements also allegedly concealed their misappropriation of customer funds. In total, the complaint charges Satterfield and Bos with misappropriating more than $850,000 of customer funds for personal use,” CFTC said.

    More than 70 customers were fleeced in a scheme that gathered about $3.3 million, CFTC said.

    Satterfield told the Post and Courier of Charleston that CFTC had mischaracterized his trading activities.