Posted by Kathy Bazoian Phelps
Below is a summary of the activity reported for June 2021. The reported stories reflect at least 9 new Ponzi schemes worldwide, 2 guilty pleas, more than 34 years of prison sentences, and an average age of approximately 46 for the alleged Ponzi schemers. Please feel free to post comments about these or other Ponzi schemes that I may have missed.
Lee Anglin, 50, was sentenced to 6 months in prison. He had been released from prison three years ago after serving 12 of his 15-year prison sentence for a $10 million real estate Ponzi scheme. He was sentenced again for after violating the terms of his probation by engaging in new money-making schemes that included providing legal services for inmates even though he isn’t a lawyer and negotiating to buy two businesses in Utah.
Robert Joseph Armijo and Joseph Financial Inc. were charged by the SEC in connection raising at least $4.85 million as part of the $170 million EquiAlt LLC Ponzi scheme. They sold securities to more than 50 investors and made about $1.1 million in commissions. The EquiAlt real estate scheme defrauded about 1,100 investors, many of whom were elderly.
Darrell Arnold Aviss, 63, of California, was indicted on allegations that he ran a $12 million Ponzi scheme. Aviss promised investors that their funds would be used to purchase annuities from Swiss insurance companies and that the annuities would pay interest rates ranging from 5% to 7%. Instead, Aviss used the funds to support his lavish lifestyle, including luxury car leases, expensive watches, trips to Monaco, and 20 tickets to a U2 concert and after-party.
Larry B. Brodman and Anthony Nicolosi aka Anthony Peluso agreed to pay disgorgement of ill-gotten gains in connection with an SEC action filed against them, without admitting or denying the allegations. The SEC alleged that Brodman and Property Income Investors LLC raised $9.06 million through 12 separate companies and that they defrauded 156 investors by promising returns from the purchase of residential real estate that would be turned into rental properties, but that they misappropriated about $1.12 million.
Steven F. Brown, 52, was sentenced to 4 years and 3 months in prison for running a $3.3 million Ponzi scheme. The scheme was run through Alpha Trade Analytics Inc., a financial consulting and investment company that Brown ran out of his house.
Phillip Wayne Conley, 38, of Florida, pleaded guilty to charges relating to a $5 million Ponzi scheme that defrauded 18 victims. Conley operated the scheme through Alpax and shell companies and represented that he managed multiple private investment funds. Conley issued false dividend statements claiming positive returns.
Larry Dela Cruz and Rick Rivera, along with 13 others, were charged by authorities accusing them of running a fraud through Pagudpud Sands Resort. The others named are: Louis Maser, Christopher Jaromay, Garry Gerardo, Bernard Campilan, Christela Balubar, Matt Rose, Marina Jaromay, Merito Jaromay, Gregory Pritchard, Juan Murillo, Thu Dang, Kristel Villar, and Nelson Manmano. The scheme recruited mostly elderly Filipinos and took in $5 million. Investors were promised returns from the supposed construction of the report when in reality the money went primarily to paying salaries and commissions to those who brought investors to the scheme.
Derline Cunningham, 60, of Greece, was charged in connection with a scheme run by Christopher Parris and Perry Santillo through Lucian Development. Cunningham was the branch manager of Bank of American and later of Citizen Bank and is accused of lying to another bank to allow millions of dollars in resolving credit to be extended. Lucian was accused of running a Ponzi scheme by selling fraudulent promissory notes to investors.
Marc Lawrence, 55, of New York, was sentenced to 4 years and 7 months in prison in connection with a scheme run through a group of entities known as the Downing entities. Lawrence previously pleaded guilty to soliciting almost $10 million from approximately 40 investors through false and misleading statements. Lawrence ran the scheme with David Wagner, who was previously sentenced to 72 months in prison. The two promised returns from investments in healthcare start-ups referred to as “portfolio companies.” After lawsuits had been brought against the Downing companies, they started a new company called Cliniflow Technologies. Most of the $1.5 million raised by Cliniflow was transferred to other Downing entities.
Joseph Meli was sentenced to an additional 37 months in prison, but 25 of those will run concurrent to the 6 ½ year sentence he is currently serving in connection with the concert Ponzi scheme he previously ran. The scheme involved $104 million.
Douglas A. Richardson, 47, of Missouri, was sentenced to 15 years and 8 months in prison without parole and ordered to pay about $8.8 million in restitution. Richardson ran a $12 million Ponzi scheme through Douglas A. Richardson, CPA, LLC. He was the former chief financial officer, treasurer and CPA of Smart Prong Technologies, Inc. and transferred at least $4.4 million from Smart Prong bank accounts to his personal and business bank accounts. Richardson also solicited funds from clients and induced them to make investments but in reality took some of the money for his own benefit.
William A. Sassman II, 53, of California, was indicted on charges that he was engaged in banking transactions with criminally derived property. In 2011, Sassman had been sentenced to 18 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to charges in connection with a Ponzi scheme that had defrauded at least 48 victims out of about $4.5 million.
Tyler Tysdal, 50, of Colorado, pleaded guilty to charges relating to a Ponzi scheme run with his business partner, Grant Carter, through Cobalt Sports Capital LLC. The scheme defrauded NFL quarterbacks and obtained more than $46 million from 77 investors. Tysdal also pleaded guilty to a second scheme in which he promised investors returns of 10 to 15 times their investment in connection with a private label wine scheme.
INTERNATIONAL PONZI SCHEME NEWS
Australia
A smartphone App called the Hope Business App or the Hope Group Earning App is believed to be a Ponzi scheme that defrauded consumers out of $400,000.
Belgium
Authorities detained and searched the homes of 5 individuals who are believed to be engaged in the operation of a worldwide Ponzi scheme known as VITAE AG that defrauded 223,000 individuals in 177 countries. The alleged scheme was promoted under the website “Vitaetoken.io” and social media platform Vitae.co. Mendy Z. and Shrage P. were two of the arrested in connection with the cryptocurrency scheme.
Canada
Susan Elizabeth Way, 70, was sentenced to 3 years in prison for her role in a $27 million Ponzi scheme. Way previously pleaded guilty along with Arnold Breitkreutz in connection with their roles in their mortgage investment scam run through Base Financial.
Tyler William Young, 37, admitted that he defrauded investors out of more than $13 million and then funded a meth lab to try to pay them back. Bradley Wesley Oxby, 42, and Scott Riley Pring, 39, were previously charged in connection with the scheme.
England
Mitchell Mallin, 34, was banned for 14 years from acting as a director in the U.K. in connection with a £13 million Ponzi scheme. Mallin promised returns from fixing and flipping dilapidated properties and ran the scheme through Essex and London Properties Limited.
Guyana
Aubrey Norton and Martina Seepersaud were charged in connection with their role in a scheme run by Accelerated Capital Firm Inc. Cuban national Yuri Garcia Dominguez, 34, and Ateeka Ishmael, 32, were previously arrested in connection with the scheme.
India
Anand Konar, who is on the run, was accused of defrauding about 100 investors in an alleged Ponzi scheme.
Hemant Kumar Sinha was arrested in connection with an alleged scheme run though M.S.S. Ayurvedic Healthcare Trust. Rakesh Kumar Poddar and Mukesh Kumar Poddar were also accused in connection with the scheme.
Ranganath D S, 39, was arrested on charges that he defrauded over 2,000 investors in a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme run through a website called Digitechmark.
Nigeria
Benson Kufre John and Iraboh Joseph Eseosa were arrested in connection with an alleged N3.5 billion scheme run through Annexation Business Concept when United Bank of Africa filed a complaint regarding an account opened in the name of Annexation opened by Sunday Marcus. The account had a turnover of N3.5 billion in a six-month period. The scheme promised returns of between 30% and 200%.
Comedian Ogunleye Babatunde aka Oluwadolarz was arrested for endorsing and advertising a Ponzi scheme run through RackSterli at www.racksterli.org. The scheme was run by Chidi, known as Blackgold, and offered investors different packages. Investors are asking authorities to arrest other celebrities who endorsed the scheme.
Philippines
Reposco Trading aka Reposco.10 run by Benjamin Mari Limjap, has been flagged as running a Ponzi-like scheme. Investors were guaranteed returns of 20% within 90 days from investments in sports arbitrage, foreign exchange, and oil options.
Authorities warned that Xian Coin or XNC appeared to be a Ponzi scheme. The scheme is operated by “coffee date” scammer Xian Gaza aka Christian Albert Gaza. Investors were promised “a high range of price stability and appreciation of value due to the fact that it is taking advantage of a single, centralized supply chain” and is “independently controlled by virtual crypto currency bank of Xian Gaza with a limited global supply of 75 million XNCs.”
South Africa
Raees Cajee, 21, and Ameer Cajee, 18, two brothers, fled to the United Kingdom with 69,000 bitcoin (worth $3.6 billion) that they obtained through the platform known as AfriCrypt. Investors had been promised returns of 10% per day. The brothers told investors they were mining cryptocurrencies and had mined over 100,000 Ethereum coins using home-based computer systems. In April the brothers claimed that their investment platform had been hacked, advising their investors that this forced AfriCrypt to halt operations. Raees Cajee denied the allegations and says that the co-founders went into hiding after receiving death threats.
South Korea
V Global is being investigated as a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme. About 70 employees have been booked, including the CEO, on allegations that the scheme defrauded about 69,000 people out of $3.6 billion. Victims are trying to slow down the investigation in the hope that they will triple their investments in 6 months.
Spain
Authorities recovered €6m that was lost in a Ponzi scheme run by Iban Juvanteny Gómez. Gómez has been in custody since 2019 on allegations that he was running a scheme that defrauded investors out of €15m by promising returns from investments in the stock market.
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