affinity fraud
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UPDATE: 3 Women Sentenced To Jail For Ponzi Swindle In California; Scam Involved Bogus ‘Milk’ Sales To Disneyland And Allegedly Targeted Parents Of School Children
The three California women who hatched a Ponzi scheme involving purportedly “exclusive” milk sales to Disneyland and allegedly recruited investors from the ranks of local PTA members at an elementary school in the Los Angeles region now have been sentenced to jail terms. (PTA stands for Parent-Teacher Association.) The PP Blog first reported on Maricela [...]
Former Mormon Bishop Who Presided Over ‘Friend’s Investment Group’ Charged In Alleged Connecticut Fraud Scheme Targeting Church Members; Former Broker Charged In Alleged Tennessee Ponzi Scheme
Julius C. Blackwelder, the 59-year-old former bishop of the Bridgeport Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Trumbull, Conn., has been charged with money-laundering, mail fraud and wire fraud. “This defendant is alleged to have abused his position of trust as a leader in his church to defraud fellow church members [...]
Appeals Court Upholds 20-Year Prison Sentence Of Seng Tan, Mercedes-Driving Pyramid Schemer Who Blamed Hurricane Katrina For Payment Delays And Told Members That The ‘Gods’ Had Sent Her To Make Them Millionaires
EDITOR’S NOTE: Simply put, the World Marketing Direct Selling (WMDS) and OneUniverseOnline (1UOL) pyramid scheme of James Bunchan and Seng Tan was one of the ugliest — if not the ugliest — in U.S. history. Bunchan eventually was implicated in a a murder-for-hire plot in which 12 witnesses and a federal prosecutor in Massachusetts were [...]
SEC Names 3 Defendants In Alleged $16 Million Credit-Card ‘Merchant Portfolio’ Ponzi Scheme Targeted At Mormons; Records Show Schemes Within Schemes Dating Back Years
EDITOR’S NOTE: If you’re keeping a Bubba Blue notebook on how to have a Ponzi scheme as opposed to shrimp, here is an entry: an alleged “merchant portfolio” Ponzi scheme. Ponzi and fraud schemes often use impressive-sounding terminology to separate people from their money. Schemes typically mushroom to consume millions of dollars when investors — [...]
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: SEC Says Utah Father And Son Were At Helm Of $220 Million Ponzi Scheme That Traded On Faith
URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: The SEC has gone to federal court in Utah to halt what it described as a $220 million real-estate Ponzi scheme that appeared to grow in part because the alleged operators used their membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to disarm skeptics. A “complex web of [...]
UPDATE: Top Federal Prosecutor Describes Edward L. Moskop As ‘Financial Predator’; Judge Imposes Maximum Prison Term On Southern Illinois Swindler; St. Louis Post-Dispatch Reports Woman Who Survived Nazi Labor Camp Was Among The Victims
Recidivist huckster Edward L. Moskop was sentenced yesterday to 20 years in federal prison by U.S. District Judge William Stiehl of the Southern District of Illinois. Among the victims of his fraud scheme was an 85-year-old woman who survived a Nazi labor camp during World War II, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. At Moskop’s sentencing [...]
BULLETIN: Former Radio Host John Farahi Indicted In Alleged Ponzi Scheme; His Attorney Also Indicted Amid Allegations He Obstructed SEC Probe
BULLETIN: John Farahi, a former Los Angeles radio host who once was a member of the city council of Reno, Nev., has been indicted on dozens of counts of defrauding investors and banks out of at least $20 million, federal prosecutors in the Central District of California said. David Tamman, an attorney, was indicted amid [...]
BULLETIN: Michigan Ponzi Schemer Keith Epstein, Who Sanitized Caper With Charitable Donations While He Ripped Off Senior Citzens And Spent Their Money On Strippers, Sentenced To Federal Prison
Keith Epstein, 56, told senior citizens they could trust him with their money. Some of his investors believed him — and they liquidated legitimate holdings and gave the cash to Epstein. But Epstein, of Farmington Hills, Mich., was running a $4 million Ponzi scheme, the FBI said. He took the cash from his victims, spending [...]
BULLETIN: Florida Man, 71, Booked Into Alabama Jail On Theft Charges; James Leonard Craft Is Subject Of Probe By Alabama Securities Commission Into Purported ‘South American’ Railroad Cross Ties; Some Strange Parallels To ASD Case Emerge
BULLETIN: The cavalcade of senior citizens implicated in alleged securities schemes continues. James Leonard Craft has been taken from a jail cell in Florida and placed in one in Alabama to answer felony charges that he was at the helm of a securities swindle. Craft, 71, of Milton, Fla., originally was arrested in Florida Sept. [...]
BULLETIN: California Woman Pleads Guilty In ‘Christian Rock Concerts’ Ponzi Scheme; Recidivist Swindler Lauren Baumann Used Money From Latest Scam To Pay $10,000-A-Month Mansion Rent, Prosecutors Say
BULLETIN: A California woman has pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a Ponzi scheme in which investors were falsely told their money was being used to fund “Christian rock concerts” and to flip real estate at a profit. Lauren Baumann, 43, of Downey, was a recidivist huckster who failed to disclose she’d been sued for fraud [...]
EDITORIAL: As Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force Website (StopFraud.gov) Spotlights AdSurfDaily Prosecution, Bizarre Email Circulating Among ASD Members Raises New Conspiracy Theories
UPDATED 10:31 A.M. EDT (U.S.A). ASD case subject of discussion in Washington’s highest power corridors: The Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force was formed by President Obama in November 2009. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, a member of the President’s cabinet and the chief law-enforcement officer of the U.S. government, presides over the Task Force. Secret [...]