PonziScams.com Schemes & Due Diligence

SEC Charges Global Asset Partners and Joseph C. Lavin For Defrauding Investors In $5 Million Ponzi Scheme

The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed fraud charges against Joseph C. Lavin and his company, Global Asset Partners, LLC (”GAP”), a purported Seattle-based investment fund manager, accusing them of misappropriating at least $5 million from over 100 investors nationwide. According to the Commission, Lavin, 41, of Woodinville, Wash., promised investors extraordinary returns of 18 to 36 percent per year from the GAP investments. Far from producing the promised returns, the Commission’s complaint alleges that Lavin used investor funds to pay for personal expenses for himself and his friends, including lavish trips, automobiles, a Seattle Mariners luxury skybox, and real estate in Costa Rica. Lavin also diverted investor funds to a now-bankrupt Texas real estate project known as Wildflower Resort Company.

The complaint alleges that Lavin told investors that their money would be placed into funds managed by GAP, where it would be invested in foreign currencies and asset-backed securities. Instead, Lavin converted the investors’ money to his own use. In addition, as in a classic Ponzi scheme, Lavin used money raised from new investors to pay purported returns to previous investors. The Commission further claims that Lavin sent false account statements to GAP’s investors showing ever-increasing account balances based upon accumulation of the promised returns. In reality, according to the complaint, the GAP funds never made any money and Lavin fabricated the account balances on the statements to fool investors into believing their investments were profitable and to induce them to make additional investments.

The Commission’s complaint, filed in federal district court in Seattle, seeks to enjoin Lavin and GAP from future violations of the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws [Sections 5(a), 5(c) and 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 Rule 10b-5 thereunder, and Sections 206(1) and 206(2) of the Investment Advisers Act. The Complaint also requests that the district court order Lavin and GAP to disgorge their ill-gotten gains, plus prejudgment interest and to impose a civil monetary penalty.

SEC Complaint in this matter

http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2007/lr20220.htm

Securities and Exchange Commission v. Global Finance & Investments, Inc., Charles R. Davis, Lucre Fund, LLC, JTA Enterprises, William H. Clark, Level Par Investments, LLC, Kelly G. Rogers, Sterling Meridian LLC, Ronald J. Linn Glenn Maske and William F. Dippolito, Defendants, and USAssets & Funding Corp., Nevada Sentry Service Corp., Wells Ventures LLC, Triquestra Management Corp., and CMR Mngt. Group, LLC, Relief Defendants. Civil Action No. 4:07cv346, (United States District Court; Eastern District of Texas; Sherman Division)
SEC Sues Promoters of High Yield Investment Programs For Fraud and Seeks Appointment of a Receiver on Behalf of Investors
Read the rest of this entry »

SEC HALTS $45 MILLION PONZI-LIKE PROMISSORY NOTE SCHEME

The Commission, on July 12, filed an emergency action to halt an
ongoing $45 million securities offering that the SEC alleges to be a
Ponzi-like scheme. Named in the Commission’s complaint are Terchi Liao
(a.k.a. Nelson Liao), age 49 of Arcadia, California, and two entities
he controls, also of Arcadia, AOB Commerce, Inc. and AOB Asia Fund I,
LLC. The complaint also names four other Southern California entities
controlled by Liao — AOB Management, Inc., AOB Transportation, Inc.,
AOB Vacations, Inc., and AOB Media, Inc. — as relief defendants based
on their receipt of investor funds. The Honorable Christina A. Snyder,
United States District Judge for the Central District of California,
issued a temporary restraining order halting the securities offering,
appointing a temporary receiver over AOB Commerce and AOB Asia Fund,
and the relief defendants. The court also temporarily froze the assets
of the defendants and the relief defendants.

The Commission’s complaint alleges that since mid-2004, the defendants
have raised more than $45 million from hundreds of investors
nationwide through their unregistered offering and sale of promissory
notes that purportedly pay guaranteed interest of up to 5.5% per
month.

The complaint further alleges that the defendants represent that they
are in the business of making loans to companies in Asia, particularly
China. Although the defendants have made some loans to Asian
companies, they have principally used investor funds to pay the
interest on the promissory notes they previously issued and to pay
commissions to investors who solicit others to invest in the notes.
For example, according to the complaint, in the six-month period from
July 1, 2006 through December 31, 2006, the defendants:

* Raised more than $13.7 million from investors through the sale
of the notes;

* Received less than $375,000 from legitimate business
activities; but

* Paid more than $6 million in interest and commissions to
investors; and

* Loaned or otherwise transferred almost $6 million to four
related entities owned and/or controlled by Liao which are named
in the complaint as relief defendants.

As alleged in the complaint, Liao has known since at least September
2006 that AOB Commerce and AOB Asia Fund were unable to pay the
interest due investors from their business activities, and knew or was
reckless in not knowing that they were unable to do so prior to that
date. Nevertheless, the defendants have continued to raise substantial
amounts from investors through the sale of notes and have continued to
pay interest and commissions with new investor principal.

The court issued an order temporarily enjoining defendants from future
violations of the securities registration and antifraud provisions of
the federal securities laws, Sections 5(a), 5(c), and 17(a) of the
Securities Act of 1933, Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act
of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The court also issued orders (1)
freezing the assets of the defendants and relief defendants; (2)
appointing a temporary receiver over the defendants and relief
defendants; (3) requiring the defendants to provide accountings; (4)
prohibiting the destruction of documents by the defendants; and (5)
granting expedited discovery. The Commission also seeks preliminary
and permanent injunctions, return of ill-gotten gains with prejudgment
interest, and penalties against the defendants. The Commission’s
complaint also requests an order barring Liao from acting as an
officer or director of any public company.

The complaint also alleges that the defendants loaned or otherwise
transferred significant amounts of investor monies to the relief
defendants and seeks the return of those monies.

A hearing on whether a preliminary injunction should be issued against
the defendants and whether a permanent receiver should be appointed is
scheduled for August 6, 2007.

Investors may direct their inquiries to the temporary receiver, Robb
Evans & Associates LLC, at (818) 768-8100.

The SEC has issued information for investors on promissory notes,
“Broken Promises: Promissory Note Fraud,” located at
http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/promise.htm. [SEC v. AOB Commerce,
Inc., AOB Asia Fund, I, LLC, and Terchi Liao a/k/a Nelson Liao, et
al., No. CV 07-4507 CAS (JCx) (C.D. Cal.)] (LR-20196)

It appears that the ride for CEP and it’s subsideraries is over. The SEC filed a complaint seeking emergency relief in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina against CEP Holdings, Inc. d/b/a www.colonendparenthesis.net (CEP), Colon End Parenthesis Trust, LLC (CEP Trust), and its owners and operators, Trevor Reed (Reed) and Clayton Kimbrell (Kimbrell). This is no surprise to me or others blogging about this today.
See DrunksWorld & NOBS

What does surprise me is people still put money into the unlicensed money transmitters and the associated schemes! Come on guys GROW UP get out of the GREED MODE!

Just because an Admin CLAIMS he has it covered, well guess what most likely he doesn’t!

Furthermore If an Admin tells you “not to invest if you don’t believe him or Trust him“…then DON’T, most likely IT IS A SCAM!!!!

SC of Malaysia is cracking down by blocking websites:

Below is the list of known companies and websites which are not authorised nor approved under the securities laws to deal in securities, provide investment advice and/or fund management services related to securities or futures.

The public is advised not to make any investment with companies that are not licensed or approved by the SC. Offers often comes in the guise of seemingly attractive investment opportunities or schemes and may also be camoflaged as direct selling or business opportunities.
Read the rest of this entry »

Refunds may take LONG TIME!!!!

If your TSMC account name is Mouse, then you have a long
wait because they are processing the accounts in the order
of the TSMC account names (’A’ through ‘Z’ order).

The last I heard (last week) was that they were working on
accounts that started with the letter ‘C’. Hopefully they
are further along by now.

One more thing. Bob can only pay out so much in Refunds
each month, according to how much profits his investments
earn.

So this is going to take quite a while to finish. I’m hoping
that Bob is re-investing part of his profits each month
because that will have the overall effect of speeding up
the Refund Process.

“According to a letter that was attached to my refund check, they’re calculating refunds according to deposits made through the following: AP, authorize.net, check, money order, e-gold, e-bullion, and virtual money. That sum was then subtracted from any monies already received on your end from: AP, check, wire transfer, e-bullion, virtual money and e-gold.

I hope this answers your question.” This was from Krimm’s forum.

My question is this, if you were paid out from a surf to TSMC is that money just Gone? Adsmania paid people out to TSMC while accepting funds from other locations. DailyROI same way….I hope this isn’t the case, but at the moment it does look that way!

According to Krimm’s forum he has sent out 69 refund checks below is a list of the checks and amounts. The Total amount refunded is $33,191.84, according to the forum. There have been people posting in his forum they have received them. Read the rest of this entry »

The following is the Email conversation Between Gerry Simoni and Leon V about Quest2surf:

From: Gerry Simoni [mailto:gsimoni@adelphia.net]
Sent: 04 January 2007 12:56 AM
To: Leon VR
Subject: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Leon,

You need remove any file that is associated with Terry Read the rest of this entry »

Here are a series of emails between Gerry Simoni and Todd Heaps (This is a LONG Post!!!):

—– Original Message —–
From: Gerry Simoni
To: Todd Heaps ; Jake Amadee
Sent: Monday, January 15, 2007 8:42 PM
Subject: Important……..

Hi Guys, Read the rest of this entry »