On Wednesday September 6, 2018 the US Department of Justice announced the indictment of Robert G. Mouritsen of Kaysville, Utah on three counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering. The DOJ alleged that Mouritsen used a “position of prominence” to induce friends and fellow church members to give him money to further… Read more »
I have previously written about Mr. Jeppeson, now his is more trouble. This is from the Ogden Herald Journal this week: The Utah Division of Securities of the Department of Commerce have filed court documents against John Zane Jeppesen, of Garland, bringing forth more accusations and details into Jeppesen’s nearly 20 year behavior of securities… Read more »
UPDATE: For those of you who are watching this case, I have been informed that Mr. Jergensen’s sentencing has been postponed. The sentencing was rescheduled to March 2, 2018 at 1:30 p.m. in the federal courthouse in Syracuse, NY. I assume the judge will be the same one who conducted the trial; U.S. District Court Judge… Read more »
This is a re-post of a great article on the unique problem we have with affinity fraud here in Utah. This article appeared on the FBI’s website yesterday. Affinity Fraud White-Collar Criminals Use Bonds of Trust to Prey on Investors Financial fraudsters are known to be an unscrupulous lot, but it is particularly loathsome when these… Read more »
For those who are interested in the intersection between the LDS Faith and the epidemic of affinity fraud and Ponzi schemes in Utah and the LDS community worldwide, take a listen to this podcast in which I was interviewed by the brilliant scholar Gina Colvin who manages the A Thoughtful Faith Podcast. This was a… Read more »
Today I received a tip that earlier this year the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a lawsuit in Federal Court in Arizona against Cory Williams and his company Williams Advisory Group of Gilbert, Arizona. In its complaint the CFTC alleged that Mr. Williams defrauded 40 investors out of at least $13 million in connection with… Read more »
I wanted to share a compelling story of fraud perpetrated against several members of the LDS Church in Illinois. It was written by Mark Brown of the Chicago Sun Times and tells the story of a man named Carlos Meza who was a bishopric member in his LDS ward in in Crystal Lake, Illinois. This is not a… Read more »
As a follow-up to my prior story about a shocking small town fraud scheme that occurred in Nephi, Utah. Yesterday the confessed perpetrator of that scheme, Tom Andrews, was sentenced to 97 months in prison. This is the maximum sentence Judge Sam could have imposed. Hopefully others who might consider starting up a scheme like… Read more »
UPDATE: Yesterday United States District Judge David Sam rejected a plea deal that had been worked out between Thomas Andrews (the subject of the story below) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. According to a story in the Deseret News, Judge Sam rejected the plea deal because he believed it was too lenient. Andrews withdrew his guilty… Read more »
My friend Dennis Romboy is a great reporter over at the Deseret News who put together a very detailed two-part story on affinity fraud that was published over the weekend. Part One of the series was called “Utah’s fraud ‘epidemic’: Victims share anger, embarrassment, hurt” and provided the details of how a number of Utahn’s… Read more »