PonziScheme

The Securities and Exchange Commission has sued the estate of money manager Joel David Salinas, the president of J. David Financial who died last month, and Brian Bjork, chief investment officer of Select Asset Management, for allegedly selling $50 million of fake bonds.

File under R, for "ridiculous": Disgraced former financial adviser Gary Armitage's debts have spiraled to nearly $90 million, according to bankruptcy filings, the majority of it owed to former clients accusing him of fraud and misappropriating their funds. So what did Armitage do with their...

The latest news in the case of the alleged $8 billion Ponzi shceme perpetrated by Allen Stanford is that... he says he didn't do it. Now isn't that clever and unexpected? In an interview with ABC News, Stanford apparently said he didn't really run a Ponzi scheme, and he'd "die and go to hell" if...

Regulators are going crazy over Ponzi schemes. One regulatory agency has reportedly found 19 Ponzi schemes so far this year, and says that hundreds of reported investment schemes are currently being investigated across America.Why are all these schemes coming to light? It probably has less to do...

Don't think that only wealthy investors are potential victims of Ponzi and pyramid schemes. The average consumer is just as vulnerable, and maybe even more vulnerable. The garden variety Ponzi scheme is nothing more than a chance to take your money. You pay $500 or $1,000 or $10,000 for the...

The Securities and Exchange Commission is charged with protecting investors, investigating allegations of wrongdoing on Wall Street, and generally policing public companies. Yet recent failures lead investors to question how effective the SEC is. It is being reported that the SEC had several...

The news that Bernard Madoff was arrested Friday and charged with securities fraud in what federal prosecutors called a $50 billion Ponzi scheme should serve as a warning to anyone asked to give money with promises of getting high returns if they sign up more people. Hopefully you won't get...

The concept behind an affinity fraud scheme is simple: Gain the trust of a group of people with something in common and scam them out of lots of money. The "groups" are often based on ethnicity, immigrant status, religious affiliation, college alumni association, or something along the same lines....