Ponzi Schemes

The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday placed Hannes Tulving Rare Coin Investment, one of the nation's biggest coin dealers, into receivership and is expected to file a civil complaint today charging the firm with overpricing. In a separate case, sources said the FTC is investigating Professional Coin Grading Service in Irvine, the industry's largest appraiser, on allegations it graded some coins at rates favorable to its preferred customers.

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. Online shopping discounts - Two men have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms after they were convicted of several crimes related to an online shopping club. James A. Sweeney II and Patrick M. Ryan were convicted of numerous charges of grand theft and securities fraud involving a Riverside company called Big Co-Op Inc., which claimed to offer rebates and discounts to online shoppers. Prosecutors had accused the pair of selling worthless private stock in the company, which they claimed was turning huge profits and about to make an initial public offering.

Ponzi scheme refers to a financial scam that pays early investors returns using money put in by later investors. Recent enforcement actions target the operators of three alleged Ponzi schemes. Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. The term "Ponzi scheme," named after swindler Charles Ponzi, refers to a financial scam that pays early investors returns using money put in by later investors. Victims are often attracted by promises of high returns with little or no risk, something that's unavailable through traditional investments and often is a sign of trouble.

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. Personalized T-shirts — The Better Business Bureau is warning that a company that sells made-to-order T-shirts has pocketed consumers' money without delivering the goods. The consumer group said it has received more than 100 complaints from consumers who said they paid Personally Yours for personalized T-shirts but did not receive them and could not get refunds. "When making online purchases, the best recourse consumers have is to pay by credit card," said Robert Crockett, chief executive of the BBB serving Southern Nevada.

A Los Angeles federal judge barred a Pomona man and his two companies, Ben-Wal Leasing Co. and Ben-Wal Management Inc., from doing business in response to a complaint alleging investor fraud filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The civil complaint said the two firms, run by Jerry E. Benson, ran a Ponzi scheme that took in nearly $6 million from about 125 investors, many of them elderly, who lived in mobile home parks throughout California. The court ordered a halt Wednesday to the alleged fraud and froze the assets of Benson and his Ben-Wal companies.

Three California men were charged with running a $200-million Ponzi scheme involving thousands of investors, state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown said Friday. The men used investors' money to finance their estates, jets and cars before their Ponzi scheme collapsed, causing some retired investors to lose their life savings, Brown said. The defendants are James Stanley Koenig, 57, of Redding; Gary T. Armitage, 59, of Healdsburg; and Jeffrey A. Guidi, 54, of Santa Rosa, according to the statement.

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit Monday against an El Segundo investment firm, accusing its owner of operating a $23-million Ponzi scheme that targeted Latino investors from seven states. Clelia A. Flores and her company, Maximum Return Investments Inc., attracted about 150 investors from 2006 to 2008 by offering returns of 25% a month, the lawsuit alleged.

A Mission Viejo man pleaded guilty Monday to operating a telephone sex line that purported to sell investments but was really a Ponzi scheme that collected $4.9 million. Michael Freedman, 46, could face 110 years in prison for fraud and money laundering when he is sentenced June 6. Prosecutors say Freedman ran Asian-Pacific Spectrum Communications, which duped about 450 victim-investors from 1995 to 1998.

A Newport Beach man was indicted on charges of swindling 400 victims out of more than $10 million by persuading them to invest in three supposedly high-tech companies he controlled, the U.S. attorney's office said Friday. Steven P. Hevell, 38, taken into custody Wednesday night, was ordered held without bond as a flight risk following a hearing before a federal magistrate Thursday.

Federal regulators accused MicroWest Industries Inc. of fraud, saying the Irvine-based company raised more than $4.25 million from unsuspecting investors through promises of high returns in a tele-medicine project. The Securities and Exchange Commission, in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles, said MicroWest had promised investors their money would be used to make and market computer equipment to transmit medical images, among other things.

Personalized T-shirts - The Better Business Bureau is warning that a company that sells made-to-order T-shirts has pocketed consumers' money without delivering the goods. The consumer group said it has received more than 100 complaints from consumers who said they paid a company called Personally Yours for personalized T-shirts, did not receive them and could not receive refunds. “When making online purchases, the best recourse consumers have is to pay by credit card,” said Robert Crockett, chief executive of the BBB serving Southern Nevada.  “In the event of fraud, non-delivery or non-communication with a business, consumers can dispute charges with their credit card company to try and receive refunds.” Ponzi scheme - A federal grand jury in San Francisco has indicted two people on charges related to a $129-million Ponzi scheme.

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. Counterfeit luxury items - Bargain hunters should take extreme care when shopping for discounted brand-name merchandise on the Internet, the Better Business Bureau said in a recent bulletin. Websites such as Craigslist and EBay have been used to sell counterfeit items, the BBB said. But some firms have also set up their own websites to market knockoff luxury goods, which are often of poor quality and likely to disappoint the consumer, the group said.

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. Mormons targeted The Securities and Exchange Commission has accused several Utah residents of operating a Ponzi scheme that victimized members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In a Dec. 29 lawsuit filed in federal court in Utah, the SEC alleged that Joseph Nelson and his associates targeted investors at church functions, telling them they could double their money if they invested with Nelson's companies.

Investors cheered when they learned French police had arrested accused Southern California con man Bruce Fred Friedman in the seaside resort town of Cannes. But more than one year later, Friedman remains in France and the hundreds of investors in his alleged Ponzi scheme — authorities pegged it at $228 million — are beginning to wonder whether they'll ever see him in a U.S. courtroom. For more than 13 months, Friedman has opposed efforts to stand trial in Los Angeles. French courts have authorized his extradition to the United States, but the matter now awaits a final decision by the French government, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles.

Internet gambling site Full Tilt Poker and its operators built a global Ponzi scheme that bilked online players out of at least $390 million, according to new allegations in an amended civil lawsuit filed by federal prosecutors. The U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan said that besides defrauding the U.S. banking system, as alleged in a civil lawsuit last spring, Full Tilt was "not a legitimate poker company. " Instead, it "cheated and abused its own players," prosecutors said, as insiders "lined their own pockets with funds picked from the pockets of their most loyal customers while blithely lying to both players and the public alike about the safety and security of the money deposited with the company.

The conventional wisdom has long held that Social Security is the "third rail" of politics, so popular that criticizing it amounts to committing political suicide. Evidently no one bothered to warn Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who repeated his critique that Social Security is a "Ponzi scheme" shortly after entering the race for the Republican presidential nomination. His hyperbolic denunciation, which has resonated with segments of the GOP and the "tea party" movement, reflects some of the real problems in the 76-year-old program.

UnionBanCal Corp. must face claims by six investors in Reed Slatkin's Ponzi scheme who claim that California's third-largest bank conspired to conceal the EarthLink Inc. co-founder's fraud. UnionBanCal will have to go to trial on three of four claims over Slatkin's scheme, including aiding and abetting a breach of fiduciary duty and conspiracy to commit fraud, U.S. District Judge Margaret Morrow ruled.

The Republican presidential race escalated into an unlikely brawl over Social Security on Thursday, as Mitt Romney seized on Rick Perry's forceful denunciation of the popular program to challenge the judgment and electability of the Texas governor. Hours after the two candidates — the erstwhile front-runner and his successor — clashed face-to-face at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Romney renewed his criticism in a radio interview with conservative host Sean Hannity.

Ponzi scheme refers to a financial scam that pays early investors returns using money put in by later investors. Recent enforcement actions target the operators of three alleged Ponzi schemes. Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. The term "Ponzi scheme," named after swindler Charles Ponzi, refers to a financial scam that pays early investors returns using money put in by later investors. Victims are often attracted by promises of high returns with little or no risk, something that's unavailable through traditional investments and often is a sign of trouble.