The Federal Government offers potentially significant rewards to whistleblowers who provide information to the government that helps protect financial institutions by “deterring would-be criminals from including financial institutions in their schemes.” United States v. Serpico, 320 F.3d 691, 694-95 (7th Cir. 2003). The Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA) and the Financial Institutions… Read more »
EDITORS NOTE: this is a repost of a story that aired on our local NPR affiliate, KUER on December 30, 2019. Doug Hronek is a client of mine who agreed to speak publicly about this experience. We have filed lawsuit against Live Abundant and its agents on behalf of Doug and a number of other… Read more »
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a guest post by Bryce Welker, who is an active speaker, blogger, and tutor on accounting and finance. As the founder of Crush The CPA Exam, he has helped thousands of candidates pass the CPA exam on their first attempt. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr…. Read more »
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an excellent article that appeared in the New York Times today. I am posting it here because it contains some information about some of the new tactics that perpetrators of these schemes are using to avoid detection. They are offering products not typically associated with a Ponzi, such as financial services,… Read more »
RQN lawyers Mark Pugsley and Aaron Hinton, together with their co-counsel Kevin Simon of Strachan Strachan & Simon, P.C, won a significant victory after a 5-day trial in Utah State Court. In a detailed opinion issued last week Judge Matthew Bates awarded their clients compensatory damages in excess of $3 million, $2 million in punitive… Read more »
Editor’s note: I was interviewed on KSL’s Sunday Edition with Doug Wright last week. The discussion about Ponzi Schemes and affinity fraud in Utah happens at 8:18. I appreciate KSL Television’s willingness to engage in a frank discussion about why affinity fraud is a particularly vexing problem here in Utah, and to help get the… Read more »
Editor’s Note: This is an interview I did yesterday for the “Trib Talk” podcast from the The Salt Lake Tribune. The sentencing of convicted fraudster Rick Koerber was delayed — again — this week, adding another chapter to a 10-year legal saga for one of Utah’s most notable Ponzi schemes. But while the Koerber case… Read more »
I frequently speak to groups about investment fraud and one of the questions I often get asked is whether it’s true that Utah has the highest rate of Ponzi schemes and affinity fraud in the country. In the past I haven’t been able to say for sure. There aren’t any good studies that have reached… Read more »
Recently I have been busy working to recover losses for a large number of investors who lost money in unregistered investments offered by Woodbridge and Future Income Payments or FIP. In many cases these investments were recommended by insurance agents who were not licensed to sell securities, and did not perform adequate due-diligence on these… Read more »
Val Southwick, who was convicted of defrauding more than $140 million from hundreds of Utah residents, was quietly paroled last month after serving just ten years, according to KSL News. He pleaded guilty to nine counts of securities fraud, each second-degree felonies, and was sentenced to serve anywhere from 9 to 135 years in Utah… Read more »