Ponzi Schemes

December 18, 2014

Houston investment manager Robert Andres was sentenced to 56 months in prison and to pay more than $3.2M in restitution for orchestrating a $72M investment fraud scheme resulting in approximately $40M in losses to investors. According to his guilty plea, between October 2005 and 2011, Andres recruited investors for Winsome Investment Trust, where he served as the sole manager, attorney and trustee, by misrepresenting Winsome’s assets, asset allocation and the manner in which investor funds were invested. Andres also misappropriated approximately $2.2M in investor money for personal use, including to pay his hotel bills and living expenses. DOJ

August 25, 2014

Former Hanover Corporation CFO Robert Haley and former Hanover salesman Daryl Bornstein were sentenced to serve 60 months and 70 months in prison, respectively, and ordered to pay $14.5 million in restitution for their roles in an $18 million Ponzi scheme. Hanover’s former CEO was previously sentenced to 14 years in prison and ordered to pay $14.7 million in restitution in this case. DOJ

August 15, 2014

Former Hanover Corporation CEO Terry Kretz was sentenced to 14 years in prison and ordered to pay $14.8M in restitution for orchestrating an $18 million Ponzi scheme. According to court documents, Kretz offered clients the opportunity to invest in Hanover through promissory notes bearing high interest rates, however, more than half of the money invested in Hanover went to repay earlier investors, to pay Hanover’s salaries and overhead and to fund personal luxuries. Daryl Bornstein, a Hanover salesman, and Robert Haley, Hanover’s chief financial officer, previously pleaded guilty to similar charges. DOJ

October 20, 2015

Alan James Watson, Cash Flow Financial LLC, and Michael S. Potts have been ordered to pay over $91 million in fines and restitution for operating a commodity pool Ponzi scheme.  CFTC

October 20, 2015

A federal judge has ordered John R. Bullar and his company, Executive Management Advisors LLC, to pay over $31 million in penalties and restitution for fraud, misappropriation, embezzlement, and operating a Ponzi scheme.  CFTC

August 28, 2015

Ron Earl McCullough and David Christopher Mayhew, both from Raleigh, North Carolina, have been ordered to pay $3.7 million for their roles in a Ponzi scheme involving at least 11 investors.  CFTC

July 31, 2015

Keith F. Simmons and his company, Black Diamond Capital Solutions, LLC, and Deanna Salazar and her companies, Life Plus Group, LLC and Black Diamond Holdings, LLC, have been hit with a $76 million penalty for running a foreign currency exchange (forex) Ponzi scheme.  CFTC

April 1, 2015

The New Jersey Bureau of Securities has ordered Charles J. Boyer III and James A. Wilson to pay $1 million for allegedly operating a Ponzi scheme under which they transferred approximately $177,000 of investor funds into their own personal accounts rather than investing the funds as represented to investors. NJ

September 23, 2014

The CFTC filed a federal complaint charging Ohio's John Bullar and his company, Executive Management Advisors LLC, with fraud and embezzlement in operating a $8 million commodity pool and ponzi scheme.  CFTC