1) Between 1970 and 1984 in Portugal, a woman known as Dona
Branca maintained a scheme that paid 10% monthly interest. In 1988
she was sentenced to 10 years in prison. She always claimed that
she was only trying to help the poor, but in her trial it was
proven that she had received the equivalent of 85 million
Euro.
2) In autumn of 1994, the European Kings Club collapsed, causing a
damage of about $1.1 billion. This scam was led by Damara Bertges
and Hans Günther Spachtholz. In the Swiss cantons Uri and Glarus
about every tenth adult invested into the EKC. The scam involved
buying "letters" valued at 1,400 francs that entitled buyers to
receive 12 monthly payments of 200 francs. The organisation was
based in Gelnhausen, Germany.
3) In May 1995, Pennsylvania's attorney general moved to freeze the
assets of the Foundation for New Era Philanthropy and its chairman,
John G. Bennett, Jr. The organization had raised over $500 million
from 1,100 donors. Participants, including the Red Cross, had
believed they were participating in a matching-gifts program
through New Era but, in fact it was simply a Ponzi scheme. Losses
amounted to $135 million.
4) In early 1996, the SEC filed a civil action against Bennett
Funding Group, its chief financial officer, Patrick R. Bennett, and
other companies Bennett controlled, in connection with a massive
Ponzi scheme. The companies fraudulently raised hundreds of
millions of dollars, purportedly to purchase assignments of
equipment leases and promissory notes.
5) In 1997 the government of Albania officially endorsed a series
of pyramid investment funds. When the inevitable end came, the
people of Albania, who had lost $1.2 billion, took their protest to
the streets in a revolt that toppled the government.
6) In 2000, a Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Scientology minister Reed
Slatkin came unraveled when the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission regulators became aware that Slatkin was not a licensed
investment adviser. Slatkin had raised some $600 million from over
500 wealthy investors, mostly Hollywood celebrities.
7) In December 2005, in Los Angeles, California, Larry Toshio
Osaki, who ran a gigantic Ponzi scheme and continued to offer bogus
investments in accounts receivable "factoring" after being ordered
to stop by a federal judge, was sentenced to 20 years in federal
prison. In addition to the prison term, Judge Stephen V. Wilson
ordered Osaki to pay more than $145 million in restitution to
victims.
In May 2006, James
Paul Lewis, Jr. was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for
running a $311 million Ponzi scheme over a 20-year time period. He
operated under the name Financial Advisory Consultants from Lake
Forest, California
9) In October 2006, in Malaysia,
two prominent members of society and several others were held for
running an alleged scam, known as SwissCash or Swiss Mutual Fund
(194. SwissCash offered a
returns of up to 300% within a 15-month investment period.
Currently, this HYIP investment is offered to citizens of Malaysia,
Singapore, and Indonesia. It claimed investors funds were
channeled to business activities ranging from oil exploration to
shipping and agriculture in the Caribbean. The company claims to be
operating out of New York and incorporated in Commonwealth of
Dominica.
My friend asked me to join him in a seminar recently, hence did a
little research. Rather similar don't you all think?
