Management Solutions, Inc. Real Estate Ponzi Scheme

Emergency asset freeze in a $220 million real estate based offering fraud and Ponzi scheme orchestrated by Wendell A. Jacobson and Allen R. Jacobson through Management Solutions, Inc. and over 200 other entities controlled by the Jacobsons.

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Randall Merk Fraud – SCHWAB YIELDPLUS FUND

In January 2011, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint alleging that Merk and another official committed securities law violations in connection with the offer, sale, and management of the YieldPlus Fund. YieldPlus is an ultra-short bond fund that, at its peak in 2007, had $13.5 billion in assets and over 200,000 accounts, making it the largest ultra-short bond fund at the time. The fund suffered a significant decline during the credit crisis of 2007-2008 and saw its assets fall from $13.5 billion to $1.8 billion during an eight-month period.

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Ponzi Scheme – Utah : E&R Holdings, Wise Financial Holdings, Momentum Leasing …

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the filing of a complaint in federal district court against Raymond P. Morris (Morris), James L. Haley (Haley), Jay J. Lindford (Lindford), attorney Luc D. Nguyen (Nguyen), E&R Holdings, LLC (E&R Holdings), Wise Financial Holdings, LLC (Wise Financial), Momentum Leasing, LLC (Momentum), Cornerstone Capital Fund, LLC (Cornerstone), Vantage Point Capital, LLC (Vantage Point) and Freedom Group, LLC (Freedom Group), alleging unregistered fraudulent offers, sales and purchases of securities that bilked at least 90 investors out of no less than $60 million.

The complaint alleges that from at least March 2007 through January 2009, Morris, through his entities E&R Holdings, Wise Financial and Momentum, offered and sold unregistered promissory notes to investors and in doing so made misrepresentations and omissions designed to convince investors that they were purchasing high yield notes that were risk free. Morris told investors that their funds would be deposited into a secure account and would be used only to verify deposits. Instead of using the funds as represented Morris used investor funds to support his extravagant lifestyle and to make Ponzi payments to certain investors.

MORE >>>> http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2011/lr21801.htm

Ponzi Scheme – Carr Miller Capital LLC New Jersey

The New Jersey Office of the Attorney General and the Bureau of Securities has filed a lawsuit against Carr Miller Capital LLC and its three principals. The firm’s principal place of business is listed on JFK Parkway in Short Hills and has operations out of South Jersey.

The allegation is use of a Ponzi scheme and other means to defraud investors of over $40 million.

Everett Charles Ford Miller, 41, President of Carr Miller Capital, and Ryan Jude Carr, 34, and Brian Patrick Carr, 39, cousins and employees of Carr Miller Capital, are named as defendants in the state’s nine-count Complaint. The lawsuit filed n State Superior Court in Newark alleges that the defendants violated numerous state Uniform Securities Laws by committing fraud, commingling funds and selling unregistered securities.

Ponzi Scheme – Fla. man $110 million Ponzi scheme

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C. has indicted a Florida man in a $110 million Internet Ponzi scheme.

Federal authorities arrested Thomas A. Bowdoin Jr., the founder of AdSurf Daily, Inc., on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and unlawful sale of unregistered securities.

Bowdoin, 76, originally of Quincy, was arrested last week at an Englewood apartment he rented. Investigators say Bowdoin ran an Internet Ponzi scheme disguised as an online advertising company that “drew in large numbers of investors by promising huge returns on their monies,” according to a U.S. Department of Justice

Fraud Report – Nicholas Cosmo the owner of a Long Island investment firm ( Agape World Inc. Agape Merchant Advance ) accused of Ponzi Scheme that frauded people out of more than $100 million with Bank of American (BofA) is expected to appear in court Tuesday.

FBI spokesman Jim Margolin says Nicholas Cosmo surrendered at a U.S. Postal Inspection Service office in Hicksville on Monday night.

Cosmo runs Agape World Inc. in Hauppauge (HAW’-pawg). He’s accused of taking in $300 million from investors and cheating them out of about $140 million.

Bank of America Accused in Ponzi Lawsuit

Bank of America effectively set up a branch in a Long Island office that helped Nicholas Cosmo carry out a $380 million Ponzi scheme, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in federal court.

The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Brooklyn late Thursday, contends that Bank of America “established, equipped and staffed” a branch office in the headquarters of Mr. Cosmo’s firm, Agape Merchant Advance. As a result, the lawsuit contends that the bank knowingly “assisted, facilitated and furthered” Mr. Cosmo’s fraudulent scheme.

“Bank of America was at the epicenter of this scheme,” said the lawsuit, which seeks $400 million in damages from the bank and other defendants. “Without Bank of America’s participation, the scheme would not have succeeded and grown to such an enormous size.”

MORE >>>> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/business/28ponzi.html?_r=1

Fraud Report – Clelia Flores, formerly of El Segundo, promised 25% returns every 45 days to victims who invested in her ponzi scheme company, Maximum Return Investments, and several other companies under her control.

Clelia Flores was sentenced to 5 years in federal prison after she pleaded guilty to operating a $10.3-million Ponzi scheme. She was also ordered to pay $6.1 million to victims after having already returned a portion of the money.

Flores promised to place the money in “guaranteed” bank programs and other investments. She also promised to return the original amount invested at any time because their money would never leave he bank, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Flores, 43, pleaded guilty in May to two counts of wire fraud and two counts of money laundering, and admitted to using the investment funds for personal purchases.

MORE >>>> http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2009/lr20997.htm

The SEC’s complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota alleges that Prévost, Harrold, and their firms Palm Beach Capital Management LP and Palm Beach Capital Management LLC invested more than $1 billion in hedge fund assets with Petters while pocketing more than $58 million in fees in their ponzi scheme. Petters promised investors that their money would be used to finance the purchase of vast amounts of consumer electronics by vendors who then re-sold the merchandise to such “Big Box” retailers as Wal-Mart and Costco. In reality, Petters’s “purchase order inventory financing” business was merely a Ponzi scheme. There were no inventory transactions. Petters sold promissory notes to feeder funds like those controlled by Prévost, Harrold, and their firms and used some of the note proceeds to pay returns to earlier investors, diverting the rest of the cash to his own purposes.

MORE >>>> http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2010/lr21694.htm

Federal investment regulators issued a warning this week about a sophisticated and fast-growing fraud that trolls social networks for victims and has already cost investors hundreds of millions.  

Using advertisements on Facebook to lure in initial victims, who are then convinced to inadvertently con their friends, so-called “high-yield investment program” scams have gone viral, spurring an entire online community, according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. 

“HYIPs use an array of websites and social media –including YouTube, Twitter and Facebook — to lure investors,” said John Gannon, senior vice president of investor education with FINRA. “They’re very sophisticated.” 

The pitch is a simple one: Invest in safe securities that pay high yields through a supposedly “guaranteed” program that pays “interest” as often as once a week. But these programs are Ponzi schemes that do nothing more than pay old investors with the money brought in from new investors. 

The trick that makes them successful? They’re using Facebook and Twitter to woo youthful and unsophisticated victims, who are then told that they can get “referral fees” for recommending the investments to their friends. 

Read More >>> http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/blog/devil-details/facebook-fraud-massive-scam-targets-social-networks/2599/

The SEC’s $550 million settlement with Goldman Sachs fraud is naturally being celebrated by the feds as a major victory, “the largest penalty ever assessed against a financial services firm in the history of the SEC.” Maybe. I think there’s another way to look at it.

Goldman’s net income was more than $13 billion in 2009. So $550 million is about just two weeks’ worth of earnings. Looks like Goldman figured a two-week furlough was a pretty modest price to pay to give the SEC its headline, without admitting wrongdoing, and move on.

Did anyone at the SEC think about the public benefits of a trial, in terms of sustained media scrutiny of Wall Street’s unsavory practices, whatever the outcome? Did anyone tote up the two weeks of earnings figure? Looks at first blush like another pretty smart Goldman trade.

source: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/07/sec_settlement_is_a_major_vict.html