ponzi-scheme
Every record this desk has filed under ponzi-scheme, newest first, each with the number of sources it can still show you.
The SEC says a salesman kept selling promissory notes after he was warned the two men behind them were likely running a Ponzi scheme, and earned more than $500,000 doing it; when the scheme collapsed, 230 investors were owed about $53 million.
On September 11 the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Paul Thomas Croft, Jonathan David Frost and Matthew William Dira in the Eastern District of Tennessee. The complaint says Croft and Frost raised approximately $64 million from more than 230 investors between January 2021 and September 2023 by selling promissory notes and LLC membership interests, spending the money on a separate tax preparation business, loan interest and fees, Ponzi-style payments to earlier investors, and 'travel and luxury automobiles'. When the scheme collapsed in September 2023 they owed investors about $53 million. Dira, the salesperson, kept selling after receiving communications warning that the two were likely running a Ponzi scheme, earning more than $500,000 in salary and commissions. Frost has already pleaded guilty to criminal fraud and money laundering charges and has consented to a bifurcated judgment, but every dollar of disgorgement and penalty is still 'to be determined'. The SEC's own release misprints Dira's charges as 'Section 17(a)(2) and 17(a)(2)'; the complaint says 17(a)(2) and 17(a)(3).
Also filed undersecenforcementfraudinvestors
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