Complaint Review: Ponzi Schemes

10. Renuen Corporation / Energy Solutions of Florida
Renuen Corporation / Energy Solutions of Florida is a Residential and
Commercial solar energy installation company trading under the OTC
Stock symbol RENU.PK . Jeffrey Nemes and Alexander Dongjoon Kim are
both serial convicted felons with multiple arrests and prison
sentances to their names. Now in Jupiter, Florida this DUO has become
notorious for Elderly Abuse, Renuen Stock Scam, Ponzi Scheme Financing
and bribery of local officials. Jeffrey Nemes is also a disgraced cop
from Trenton, NJ where he stole money from the children at the Police
Athletic League and bribed officials keep quiet.

Nastiness Factor: Demonic Dirty Cop. Steeling from Children,
threatening the Elderly and Extorting from the Juptier, FL community.

9. The Haiti Haters
Ponzi schemes popped up all over Haiti in the early 2000′s. These
schemes sold themselves asgovernment-backed “cooperatives.” They
ran mainstream-sounding ads, some of which featured Haitian pop stars.
As a result, people felt safe investing more than $240 million–60%
of Haitian GDP in 2001–into the schemes, which ended up being a
massive swindle.

Nastiness Factor: Bad. Haiti is already one of the poorest countries
in the world. People there eat mud cakes when times get bad. Cheating
them out of their meager savings is sick; alas, it also appears to be
systemic.

8. The Scientologist Snake
Earthlink co-founder and Scientology minister Reed Slatkin posed as a
brilliant investment advisor for A-list Hollywood residents and
corporate bosses. Working out of his garage, Slatkin cheated the rich
and famous out of roughly $593 million, creating fake statements
referring back to fake brokerage firms to prove his mettle. He fed the
Church of Scientology with millions of his winnings. In 2000, the SEC
caught wind that Slatkin wasn’t licensed, and busted the scheme.

Nastiness Factor: Mild. Cheating the rich and famous usually results
in fewer bankruptcies than, say, misling seniors out of their
retirement funds.

7. The Lottery Uprising
When Albania was moving out from behind the Iron Curtain in the
mid-1990s, a powerful government and environment of questionable
ethics resulted in a financial system dominated by pyramid schemes.
The government endorsed various Ponzis, which robbed the majority of
the population and netted more than $1 billion in losses. Albanians
rioted and overthrew the government.

Nastiness Factor: Deplorable. Don’t government officials realize
that endorsing Ponzi schemes might get them overthrown?

6. The Costa Rica Crooks
Three Costa Rican brothers, Enrique, Osvaldo and Freddy Villalobos,
defrauded clients–mostly American and Canadian retirees–out of
$400 million in a 20-odd-year unregulated loan scheme that started in
the late 1980s. They promised interest rates of 3% per month on a
minimum investmentof $10,000. Villalobos moved money through shell
companies before paying investors. Its staying power had to do with
the fact that margins were low, the brothers were disciplined, and the
outfit just barely skirted past laws.

Nastiness Factor: Mild. The size of the operation gives it a place on
this list, but the brothers also had real assets to back them up.
It’s Ponzi Lite, but that doesn’t ease the burden on people who
lost everything.

5. The Biblical Bilker
In fraud-rich Florida, the Greater Ministries International church
used Bible-speak to cheat its flock out of $500 million. Starting in
the early 1990s, the church, led by gun-toting minister Gerald Payne,
offered worshippers investments in gold coins. Payne then created an
investment plan that would “double the ‘blessings’ that people
invested” by funneling money towards the church’s fake precious
metals investments. According to the Anti-Defamation League,

Payne said that God had modernized the multiplication of the loaves
and fishes and asked him toshare the secret.
$500 million later, the Feds caught Payne, but most investors never
got their money back.

Nastiness Factor: Disgusting. Anyone who uses holy speak to bilk
people out of their retirement savings is disgusting, plain and
simple.

4. The Boy Band Bandit
Beginning in the late 1980s, Lou Pearlman, Art Garfunkel’s cousin
and former manager of ‘N Sync and the Backstreet Boys, offered
attractive returns through his FDIC-insured Trans Continental Savings
Program. The scheme was neither a savings and loan nor FDIC-approved,
but that didn’t stop Pearlman from bilking investors out of nearly
$500 million, with which he planned on funding three MTV shows and an
entertainment complex.

Nastiness Factor: Deplorable. Pearlman was already a
multimillionaire. The fact that he became a compulsive criminal after
that means he should sit in a cell for a very long time.

3. The Retiree Plunderer
Mexican resort owner Michael Eugene Kelly schemed retirees and senior
citizens out of $428 million. He offered them timeshare investments in
Cancun hotels that he called “Universal Leases.” The timeshares
came with rental agreements promising investors a nice fixed rate of
return. Most of his victims used their retirement savings, thinking
they would get solid, low-risk returns. The SEC saysthat “more than
$136 million of the funds invested (came) from IRA accounts.” Kelly,
meanwhile, bought himself a private jet, racetrack, and four yachts.

Nastiness Factor: Disgusting. Defrauding senior citizens out of their
retirement savings is just about as low as you can go.

2. Madman Madoff
Bernard Madoff’s scam is still unfolding. The facts as we know them
now are that Madoff spent decades building the biggest Ponzi scheme in
history, bilking nonprofits, famous people, funds,banks, and countless
others out of $50 billion.

Nastiness Factor: Deplorable. The man single-handedly destroyed
charities, life savings, and other organizations yet to be named. The
amount of money involved earns him a spot just below Charles Ponzi
himself.

1. The Namesake
The King of Get Rich Quick, Charles Ponzi became a millionaire in six
months by promising investors 50% return in 45 days on international
postal coupon investments. He earned $15 million, which in 1920s terms
was serious money. After Ponzi was caught, investors only received $5
million back.

Nastiness Factor: Mythical. This ancestor of fraudulent men passed
his name on to the many schemes that would follow his own. His legacy,
and his scheme, are forever memorialized, earningthem a unique
Nastiness Factor label.