18 U.S.C. § 1346 expands the definition of mail & wire fraud to include “a scheme or artifice to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services.” That’s short and sweet, but what does it mean? The courts have been left to define the crime for themselves. Unfortunately, they...
Yesterday, we observed that there have been a lot of Ponzi schemes coming down lately, and asked what gives? Today, the Wall Street Journal made the same observation, and asked the same question. Here are some points from the article: * In 2007, the SEC had brought civil actions...
Nick Cosmo, the 37-year-old head of Agape World Inc. and Agape Merchant Advance, was arraigned today on charges that he ran a Ponzi scheme that cheated investors out of $370 million since 2006. The feds allege that about 1,500 investors were promised annual returns of as much as 80%. These...
District Court Judge Percy Anderson sentenced Jeanetta Standefor to more than 12 years in prison on Tuesday, for running an $18 million Ponzi scheme that preyed on middle-class black investors. Standefor, who is also black, solicited investments from 650 people around Pasadena who thought the money would go to...
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