By Kathy Bazoian Phelps
Below is a summary of Ponzi scheme activity reported for February 2025. There were at least 7 new Ponzi schemes revealed this month, 10 guilty pleas, 1 conviction, and the average age of the fraudsters was about 48 years old. Two Ponzi schemers received enormous prison sentences of 45,376 years each. Please feel free to post comments about these or other Ponzi schemes that I may have missed.
Ivan Acevedo and Dane R. Roseman, of California, pleaded guilty to charges in connection with their role in the Woodbridge Group of Companies Ponzi scheme. They were accused of approving marketing materials and sales scripts, and upholding a false image of the company as a legitimate business. The scheme brought in $1.3 billion and affected 9,000 investors.
Douver T. Braga, 48, a citizen of Brazil, was extradited from Switzerland to face charges in connection his bitcoin scheme run through Trade Coin Club. Braga brought in 82,000 bitcoin, valued at over $290 million at the time of investment. There was no trading activity, and Braga transferred at least $50 million in bitcoin to his own accounts. Braga pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Thurman P. Bryant, III, Bryant United Capital Funding, Inc., Arthur F. Wammel, and Wammel Group, LLC had final judgments entered against them in favor of the SEC in connection with a $22.7 million Ponzi scheme. The scheme promised guaranteed returns from investments in the mortgage industry.
Sylvein William Maximilian D’Habsburg XVII, 48, pleaded guilty to charges relating to a $5.9 million Ponzi scheme. He defrauded elderly church parishioners into his two companies, Wild Rabbit Technologies LLC and BAI Intelligence LLC. He claimed he had an artificial intelligence technology that could predict the future and detect a COVID-19 infection based solely on a video recording.
Joey Stanton Dodson, 55, of California, was charged in connection with a $15 million scheme that defrauded approximately 50 victims. Dodson ran the scheme through several related companies and partnerships, collectively known as Citadel Energy. Investors were promised returns from purported water-related services to oil and gas companies in North Dakota.
Wayne T. Essex, his wife Susan Essex, and their company Essex & Associates were sued on allegations that they were running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded at least 16 investors out of $4.2 million. Authorities obtained search warrants to investigate allegations of fraud in securities offerings. The Essex’s also used other entities to run the scheme such as Essex & Associates Inc., Salty Seas Siesta LLC, Opportunity Zone Investment Fund Inc., Fin Tech Group Inc., Trinity Accounting Services Inc., and Blue Sail Investments Inc.
Anthony Farrah, 36, of California, was sentenced to 6 months in prison in connection with his luxury watch scheme. Farrah described himself as the Timepiece Gentleman and would take possession of high-end watches to sell them on consignment. Farrah would keep the proceeds or use the watches as collateral for loans. Farrah would represent that the watches had not been sold, but would instead keep the proceeds for himself.
Michael J. French, 41, of South Carolina, pleaded guilty to charges that he was operating a $13 million Ponzi scheme through MJF Holdings LLC and MJF Capital, LLC. The scheme offered returns of 12% per year from supposed loans to small businesses and defrauded more than 400 investors.
Shawn E. Good, 55, was sued by the SEC on allegations that he defrauded his investment clients while at Morgan Stanley by sending his clients’ funds to his personal account to supposedly make low-risk real estate development investments. He promised returns between 6% and 10%.
Min Woo “Kevin” Kang and his company, BKCoin, were accused by the SEC of running a scheme making Ponzi-like payments. The scheme raised $100 million.
Brent C. Kovar, 58, of Nevada, was indicted in a $24 million cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme through Profit Connect Wealth Services. He represented that the company was a profitable artificial intelligence company that mined cryptocurrency. He provided a 100% money back guarantee. He defrauded 400 investors and promised a fixed rate of return of 15% to 30%.
Todd H. Lahr, 60, of Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 3 years in prison and ordered to pay approximately $2.1 million in restitution in connection with a scheme that he ran through THL Holdings LLC and Ferran Global Holdings Inc. Lahr, a lawyer, sold THL investments in a securities fraud scheme. Investor losses are over $2.7 million.
Thomas Paul Madden, 66, of Utah, was indicted on allegations that he ran a Ponzi scheme with Jeremy Tyler Grabow, 54, of California, who was also charged. The scheme was run through Cascade IR, LLC and Savitar Systems LLC. Madden misrepresented to investors that he would sell them penny stocks and that they would make profits from a large casino and resort project in Mexico. The penny stock scheme defrauded over 200 investors out of more than $23 million, and the scheme run through Savitar brought in more than $2 million from at least 10 investors.
Matthew Mencarelli, 39, of Michigan, was sentenced to 8 years in prison in connection with a scheme that defrauded 15 victims out of approximately $1.6 million. He offered returns on investments in nonexistent fiber optic cable and other infrastructure projects.
Royce Newcomb, 62, of California, pleaded guilty to charges that he stole $4.2 million in a scheme run through Strategic Innovations LLC. Newcomb was previously convicted in 2011 for running a real estate fraud scheme.
Joshua Nicholas, 30, pleaded guilty to charges relating to a $100 million cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme run through EmpiresX.
Sergei Potapenko, 40, and Ivan Turõgin, 40, pleaded guilty to charges that they were running a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme in which customers could share in cryptocurrency mined by their purported mining service, HashFlare. HashFlare’s sales totaled more than $577 million. They have agreed to forfeit assets worth more than $400 million.
Rashawn Russell was charged by the CFTC on allegations that he was running a $1.5 million cryptocurrency fraud that made Ponzi-like payments to investors. He promised returns as high as 25%.
Willard Timothy Sutton, 64, of North Carolina, pleaded guilty to charges that he was running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded more than 60 investors out of more than $8 million. Sutton operated the scheme through Greenville Auto World, LLC, a car dealership that enabled customers with poor or no credit history to finance the purchase of a vehicle.
Mina Tadrus pleaded guilty to charges that he ran a Ponzi scheme through Tadrus Capital LLC. Investments were promised from supposed AI-driven trading strategies for supposed guaranteed returns of at least 30% per year. The SEC had charged him in 2023.
Herbert Whalen, 50, or Indiana, was sentenced to 3 years and 5 months for his role in a real estate investment scheme run through Oceanpointe Property Management. Whalen created fake leases for vacant properties and many properties were not repaired or rehabilitated as promised.
INTERNATIONAL PONZI SCHEME NEWS
Turkey
Brothers Mehmet Aydin and Faith Aydin were sentenced to 45,376 years in prison in connection their Ponzi scheme run through Ciftlik Bank (Farm Bank). The scheme defrauded victims out of approximately $250 million. Some of the funds were transferred to Fame Game and then to the Aydins’ personal accounts. The scheme defrauded over 350,000 domestic Turkey investors and another 150,000 foreigners.
England
Richard Lester, 56, was sentenced to 5 years in prison in connection with a £400,000 scheme in which he sold fake cruises. The scheme was run through Cruise Direct UK from 2009 to 2014. Lester sold “cruise vouchers” and “cruise miles” which customers could redeem for discounted cruises.
India
Deepankar Barman received additional charges in connection with his alleged Ponzi scheme run through DB Stock Consultancy.
Ananthu Krishnan, 28, was arrested on allegations that he was running a Ponzi scheme marketed as a Corporate Social Responsibility initiative. The scheme is believed to have defrauded 30,000 to 40,000 victims.
Pavan Kumar Odela, Vice President of Capital Protection Force Pvt Ltd and of Falcon Invoice Discounting Platform, and Kavya Nalluri, Director of Capital Protection Force Pvt Ltd and Falcon Capital Ventures Pvt Ltd. were arrested in connection with an alleged Ponzi scheme that involved invoice discounting. Amardeep Kumar, along with Aryan Singh and Yogender Singh, orchestrated the scheme. The scheme promised returns of 11% to 22% per year.
Inderjeet Singh, 55, was arrested for luring investors into a Ponzi scheme that defrauded at least 65 victims.
Dhanajaya Sahoo was arrested in connection with the scheme run thought Mutual Alliance Global Pvt Ltd. The scheme defrauded approximately 200 people. Sahoo represented that investors could double their money within 10 months.
Nigeria
Uno Michael Eke, the CEO of Micheno Multi-purpose Cooperative Society, was convicted and sentenced in connection with the N2 billion scheme. Eke promised 80% returns in 40 days.
Norway
Authorities charged four individuals for their role in a Ponzi scheme that collected over $87 million. The scheme was a multi-level marketing program where investors could buy product packages containing cryptocurrency and company shares. They were promised returns from gas fields, mining, and real estate. They also promised high returns from cryptocurrencies such as OctaCoin, NanoCoin, and Ormeus Coin, through investments in projects called Crypto888 Club, Octa Partners, and Nano Club.
No comments:
Post a Comment