Ponzi Schemes Category

You have already read about Ponzi schemes. Don’t assume you can’t be victimized by these illegal programs. Most victims invested in them after they were told how great they were by someone they liked or trusted. People running schemes and scams use very sophisticated marketing tactics that are based on what you want to see and hear before you invest.

By: Jack WaymirecloseAuthor: Jack Waymire Name: Jack Waymire
Email: jack@InvestorWatchdog.com
Site: http://www.investorwatchdog.com
About: Jack entered the financial services industry as an institutional consultant and later as vice president at Warburg, Paribas, Becker in 1976. From 1983 to 2003 he was the President of Lexington Capital Management and related companies. In December, 2003 John Wiley published his book "Who's Watching Your Money? The 17 Paladin Principles for Selecting a Financial Advisor". In 2004, he founded PaladinRegistry.com, a website that educated investors about financial advisors. A national Registry of pre-screened, five star rated advisors was added to the website later in 2004. In 2009, he founded InvestorWatchdog.com, a website that provides tools and information to investors who use the services of financial planners and financial advisors. Since 2004, Jack has been frequently quoted in the media on topics about financial advisors, Wall Street firms, investment scams, and the financial services industry (BusinessWeek, Forbes, Kiplinger, Washington Post, etc.).See Authors Posts (59) | December 16, 2011 | Deceptive Sales Practices, Illegal Schemes & Scams, Ponzi Schemes

The SEC has accused a father and son of bilking LDS church members out of $220 million. The money that was supposed to be used to buy apartment buildings and renovate them was used to fund the lifestyles and businesses of the perpetrators.
Churches are easy prey for Ponzi schemes. The bad guys sell the scam [...]

By: Jack WaymirecloseAuthor: Jack Waymire Name: Jack Waymire
Email: jack@InvestorWatchdog.com
Site: http://www.investorwatchdog.com
About: Jack entered the financial services industry as an institutional consultant and later as vice president at Warburg, Paribas, Becker in 1976. From 1983 to 2003 he was the President of Lexington Capital Management and related companies. In December, 2003 John Wiley published his book "Who's Watching Your Money? The 17 Paladin Principles for Selecting a Financial Advisor". In 2004, he founded PaladinRegistry.com, a website that educated investors about financial advisors. A national Registry of pre-screened, five star rated advisors was added to the website later in 2004. In 2009, he founded InvestorWatchdog.com, a website that provides tools and information to investors who use the services of financial planners and financial advisors. Since 2004, Jack has been frequently quoted in the media on topics about financial advisors, Wall Street firms, investment scams, and the financial services industry (BusinessWeek, Forbes, Kiplinger, Washington Post, etc.).See Authors Posts (59) | December 14, 2011 | Bad Financial Advice, Bad Products & Services, Deceptive Sales Practices, Ponzi Schemes

Everyone has read about illegal Ponzi schemes and Wall Street’s fraudulent investment scams that have resulted in major fines to companies.
What you don’t read about are legal investment scams that impact millions of investors. Following are examples of frequent abuses.
Definition: Legal scams benefit the advisor or the advisor’s company more than they benefit you.
Advisors sell [...]

By: DFreecloseAuthor: DFree Name: Debbie Freeman
Email: debbie@paladinregistry.com
Site: http://www.paladinregistry.com
About: See Authors Posts (14) | June 25, 2010 | Ponzi Schemes

Today the SEC alleged a new Ponzi scheme. The interesting part of the story is that the alleged Ponzi operator, Kenneth Wayne McLeod, is now deceased. Hmmm, how are they going to handle this one?
The SEC has frozen the estate of Mr. McLeod, along with assets from his benefits consulting firm, Federal Employee Benefits [...]

By: DFreecloseAuthor: DFree Name: Debbie Freeman
Email: debbie@paladinregistry.com
Site: http://www.paladinregistry.com
About: See Authors Posts (14) | June 19, 2010 | Ponzi Schemes

Here’s another sad but true story of investors who were taken to the cleaners by a ponzi operator. Giuseppe Viola is accused of running a ponzi in North Beach, a well known San Francisco neighborhood.
Like so many other ponzi operators, he promised investors returns of 20-25% on their investments, was a very good name [...]

By: DFreecloseAuthor: DFree Name: Debbie Freeman
Email: debbie@paladinregistry.com
Site: http://www.paladinregistry.com
About: See Authors Posts (14) | June 10, 2010 | Ponzi Schemes

A new ponzi scheme was just announced today in South Florida. This one focused on primarily on the hispanic community.
The con-artist used statements like: “no risk” investments, with returns of 10% to 120% paid in monthly interest payments.
Why do we post these articles? It’s our hope that we can help investors avoid making these [...]

By: DFreecloseAuthor: DFree Name: Debbie Freeman
Email: debbie@paladinregistry.com
Site: http://www.paladinregistry.com
About: See Authors Posts (14) | June 10, 2010 | Ponzi Schemes

Here is yet another sad story of investors who listened to the wrong person and lost more than $86 million in a ponzi scheme. If the investors involved had raised these questions, disaster may have been averted:
1. Who is the person I’m going to work with? Am I relying solely on their reputation to make [...]