Denver-Area Man Indicted On $4.8M Ponzi Scheme
Perry Sawano of Wheat Ridge, Colorado, a suburb of Denver, was indicted by a Jefferson County grand jury for running a Ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of $4.8 million from 2007 to 2013. Sawano was indicted on seventeen counts: five counts of securities fraud and twelve counts of theft over $20,000. Sawano allegedly ran […]
Pennsylvania Adopts New Rules To Deter Attorneys From Operating Ponzi Schemes
In the wake of an alleged multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme run by attorney Anthony J. Lupas, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has adopted new rules for attorneys in order to deter similar behavior in the future. According to changes to the Rules of Professional Conduct, lawyers will be banned from “brokering, offering to sell, selling or […]
Alabama Man Pleads Guilty To $3M Ponzi Scheme
The Frankowski Firm is currently representing a number of claimants in a case against Bryan Anderson of Hoover, Alabama. Anderson was charged today with one count each of wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering relating to a Ponzi scheme he operated through which he swindled investors out of over three million dollars, according to […]
Two Sentenced In South Carolina Ponzi Scheme
Timothy and Cassandra Wilson, the wife and brother of Ponzi scheme mastermind Ron Wilson, were sentenced this month to nine months of home confinement and one year of probation for their participation in a conspiracy to obstruct justice by hiding assets in the scheme. U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs at the federal courthouse in […]
Two California Business Owners Charged In 15-Year Ponzi Scheme
Joel Barry Gillis and Edward Wishner, two San Fernando Valley businessmen were charged this week with operating a Ponzi scheme that lasted fifteen years. Authorities believe the two received hundreds of millions of dollars from investors who believed their funds would be used to buy profitable automated teller machines. Gillis and Wishner face federal conspiracy […]
Final Former Madoff Aide Sentenced To 6 Years In Prison
JoAnn Crupi, the ex-Bernard Madoff aide who maintained the bank account for Madoff’s investment business was sentenced to six years imprisonment this week for her participation in Madoff’s Ponzi scheme that bilked investors from across the globe out of approximately twenty billion dollars. Crupi is now the fifth and final former Madoff aide to receive […]
NY Attorney Admits $5M Ponzi Scheme In Suicide Note; Suicide Attempt Failed
On November 3, Charles Bennett of Manhattan, New York jumped into the Hudson River in an attempt to commit suicide but was ultimately rescued by a New York Police Department SCUBA diver and taken to a hospital. Before the suicide attempt, however, Bennett had written a sixteen page suicide note, which he left in a […]
California Man Sentenced In $2.7M Ponzi Scheme
Earlier this week, a federal judge in Sacramento, California sentenced James Berghuis for operating a Ponzi scheme that bilked friends, family, and others out of over $2.7 million. Berghuis was found guilty of four counts of mail fraud, four counts of wire fraud, and one count of money laundering in connection with the operation. According […]
Florida Businessmen Plead Guilty To $19M Ponzi Scheme
Donald Ray Babb of Merritt Island, Florida and Ralph Ruth of Melbourne, Florida pleaded guilty earlier this week to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection to a Ponzi scheme they ran that defrauded local investors out of almost $19 million. The alleged co-conspirators each face a maximum sentence of twenty years in federal prison. […]
NY Investment Fund Manager Pleads Guilty To $17M Securities Fraud
James Peister, an investment fund manager from St. James, New York, pleaded guilty in federal court this week to securities fraud, having run a Ponzi scheme that lasted almost a decade and bilked investors out of over $17 million. Peister will pay $9.6 million in restitution to his victims and will concede $17.9 million in […]
