By Kathy Bazoian Phelps
Below is a summary of Ponzi scheme activity reported for September 2024. There were at least 4 new Ponzi schemes revealed this month and 3 guilty pleas. Ponzi schemers received more than 44 years of prison sentences this month and the average age of the fraudsters was about 50 years old. Please feel free to post comments about these or other Ponzi schemes that I may have missed.
Kenneth Alexander of Axiom Financial and Vanguard Holdings Group, Caedrynn Connor of Benchmark Capital Group, Robert Welsh of FFC Capital Ventures and Christopher Fisher of Magnolia Financial Group were sued in connection with an alleged $138 million scheme. Authorities are seeking to seize two properties they allege were purchased through proceeds of a Ponzi-type scheme.
Rudy Avila aka Jose Rodolfo Avila Guiterrez had a judgment entered against him and in favor of the CFTC for $10,5 million for defrauding more than 200 investors out of $6 million. Avila had represented he was an international finance consultant. The CFTC alleged that Avila, his company The L.I.F.T. Group LLC and two Costa Rican companies — CIG Internacional Sociedad Anonima and Trading Technologies Group Sociedad Anonima — defrauded at least 170 clients out of at least $4.2 million between 2017 and 2020, and that Avila then used three other companies — Trading Ventures Group LLC, Capital Ventures Group LLC and Ventures Group LLC — to defraud an additional 55 clients out of at least $1.8 million since 2019.
Taylor Orris Bank, of North Dakota, was ordered to stop selling unregistered investment contracts in an alleged Ponzi scheme run through Agridime LLC. Agridime is a Texas-based livestock dealer, and Bank promised guaranteed returns of 15% to 32% from investments in the company. Agridime raised at least $191 million from more than 2,100 investors. Bank earned $6 million in commissions for selling the investment contracts.
Stanislav Brill aka Stan Bril aka Slava Bril, 41, of Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 11 years and 3 months in prison in connection with a Ponzi scheme that involved the theft of about $6.7 million in federal pandemic relief funds. Brill operated the scheme through Mortgage Consultant Group and took in over $1 million from investors. He promised returns from loans on real estate and construction projects. He also borrowed money through The Brill Group, Inc. and used SAB Services LLC to run the scheme. The U.S. Attorney said Brill “blithely defrauded everyone from individual investors — many of whom lost their life savings or kids’ college funds — to a community bank, to the U.S. government and the millions of taxpayers who fund it. Meantime, he was shopping for Bentleys and boats.”
Emir Jesus Matos Camargo and Aureus Revenue Group LLC were sued by the CFTC on allegations that they were running a Ponzi-like scheme that targeted Spanish-speaking immigrants out of $1.5 million. The scheme involved a pooled investment fund that traded commodity futures contracts and promised guaranteed monthly returns between 1.5% and 3.75%.
Maria Dickerson aka Dulce Pino, 47, a Filipina pageant queen, was arrested on charges that she was running a Ponzi scheme through Creative Legal Fundings and The Ubiquity Group LLC. Dickerson promised approximately 130 investors fixed monthly returns of 10% to 17.5%, with compounding monthly interest from a legal services company. She represented that she would use investor funds to make loans to personal injury attorneys to fund their lawsuits. The scheme raised approximately $7 million from investors.
William Koo Ichioka, 30, of New York, was fined over $36 million in connection with a cryptocurrency and foreign exchange Ponzi scheme. Ichioka was previously found guilty of running the scheme that guaranteed returns of 10% every 30 business days. He previously pleaded guilty to owing non-family investors in “Ichioka Ventures” at least $21 million and owing his family members over $40 million. He was previously sentenced to serve four years in prison and ordered to pay a $5 million fine.
Sam Ikkurty, of Oregon, Jafia, LLC, Ikkurty Capital, LLC dba Rose City Income Fund I LP, Rose City Income Fund II, and Seneca Ventures, LLC were ordered to pay more than $209 million in sanctions relating to a commodity pool Ponzi scheme. The CFTC had sued the defendants for commodities violations in connection with crypto hedge funds.
Francisco Javier Malave Hernandez and Ricardo Javier Guerra Farias, of Florida, and Toller Stern Financial LLC were charged by the SEC in connection with a $5 million alleged scheme. The scheme involved the sale of promissory notes that the defendants represented were secured by $20 million of assets and promised returns of 24% to 72%. The scheme targeted the Venezuelan American community.
Brett Mauri, 61, was convicted in connection with a $2 million “Ponzi-like” scheme. Mauri is a home builder and used Bitterroot Timber Frames and Three Mile Creek Post & Beam, LLC to run the scheme that ran from 2018 through 2022.
Jeffrey Morris, 37, of West Virginia, was sentenced to 5 years in prison and ordered to pay about $5 million in restitution in connection with a Ponzi scheme he ran through Roxby Development LLC. Morris promised returns from the use of the money to develop real estate.
Long Nguyen, 35, pleaded guilty to charges relating to a scheme that defrauded at least 20 people out of $2 million. He ran the scheme between 2015 and 2021.
William Rhew III, of North Carolina, was sued by the SEC on allegations that he was running a $28 million Ponzi-like manufacturing debt investment scheme through Chadley Capital LLC. Rhew raised more than $28 million from approximately 130 investors, promising between 18% and 48% annual returns on promissory notes. Rhew represented that he was using the funds to buy credit invoices of small and medium-sized businesses in the factoring industry.
James Robinson, an extradited British citizen, was sentenced to 7 years in prison for his role in the $57 million Ponzi scheme involving co-working company Bar Works, Inc., a bogus workspace share venture. Robinson had previously pleaded guilty, along with David Kennedy, to the scheme run by Renwick Haddow and James Moore. Robinson and Kenney controlled United Property Group and related entities that sold real estate and other investment opportunities to investors. They recruited agents to sell workspace leases in Bar Works and knowingly provided false offering documents.
Robert F. Rothluebbers, 68, pleaded guilty to charges that he operated a scheme that raised at least $350,000 from four investors. He falsely claimed he would use the investors’ funds to purchase R-22 refrigerant in bulk, at a discount, and then re-sell the refrigerant to contractors at a 50% profit because the refrigerant is gradually being phased out.
INTERNATIONAL PONZI SCHEME NEWS
Australia
Tony Iervasi, 58, was sentenced to 11 years in prison in connection with an AU$180 million scheme. Iervasi was the director of Courtenay House and promised returns to approximately 585 investors from trading in foreign exchange and futures markets. Athan Papoulias was sentenced in 2023 to 2 years in prison and David Sipina pleaded guilty.
Koon Tung “Gary” Chu was ordered to repay investors in connection with a scheme he had run through the Ralan Group. Ralan Group owed investors more than $500 million when it collapsed in 2019. A court ordered Chu to repay about $7.4 million to an investor defrauded in the scheme.
England
Michael Stanley, 68, was sentenced to 6 years in connection with his operation of a Ponzi scheme disguised as a betting syndicate run through Layzey Racing Syndicate. The scheme allegedly defrauded thousands of members out of at least £10.5 million after bringing in about £44.2 million.
Ghana
Authorities arrested 257 women and 230 men involved in recruiting victims into the QNet scheme.
India
Authorities charged 25 people in connection with an alleged scheme run through IX Global LLC, IX Global Academy Private Limited, Pochale Global Academy Private Limited, and TB Global.
Singapore
Chen Wei, 51, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 4 years in jail in connection with a crypto Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors out of more than $1.8 million. Wei represented that he could provide large returns from mining cryptocurrency in China through A&A Blockchain Technology. The scheme’s mastermind, Yang Bin, 61, was sentenced last month to 6 years in prison and Wang Xinghong was sentenced to 5 years.
Turkey
Two managers of crypto platform OmegaPro – Robert Velghe and Andreas Szakacs – were arrested in connection with a scheme that promised returns of up to 300% over a maximum of 16 months. Authorities have assumed that the scheme is linked to Ruja Ignatova, known as the Crypto Queen who founded OneCoin.
