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Ponzi Scheme

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$770M ATM Ponzi Targeted Amish & Mennonites: PA’s Daryl Heller Charged, NJ Ties Revealed $770M ATM Ponzi Targeted Amish & Mennonites: PA’s Daryl Heller Charged, NJ Ties Revealed
$770M ATM Ponzi Targeted Amish & Mennonites: PA’s Daryl Heller Charged, NJ Ties Revealed A $770 million Ponzi scheme that allegedly preyed on Amish and Mennonite investors in Lancaster County has landed a Pennsylvania businessman in federal court, prosecutors announced on Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. Daryl F. Heller, 55, of Lititz, and his Lancaster-based companies Prestige Investment Group and Paramount Management Group, are accused of raising more than $770 million from about 2,700 investors between 2017 and 2024, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Federal investigators allege Heller promised fixed monthly payments from a nationwide ATM network operated by Para…

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by Jillian Pikora
Sports
Pickleball Company Owner Scammed Hundreds, Owes $47M In Debts: DOJ Pickleball Company Owner Scammed Hundreds, Owes $47M In Debts: DOJ
Pickleball Company Owner Scammed Hundreds, Owes $47M In Debts: DOJ A pickleball company owner accused of running a Ponzi-like scheme won't be able to walk away from more than $47 million in unpaid debts, authorities said. Rodney Grubbs agreed to waive his right to bankruptcy discharge, the Department of Justice announced on Wednesday, June 11. Grubbs was the owner of Indiana-based All About Pickleball LLC, also known as Pickleball Rocks. Creditors can continue to go after him for repayment, even after his bankruptcy case is closed. "The USTP is committed to addressing fraudulent and abusive conduct that threatens the integrity of the bankruptcy …

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by Chris Spiker
News
Seen Her? Woman Behind Alleged $4B Ponzi-Style Scheme Among FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted Seen Her? Woman Behind Alleged $4B Ponzi-Style Scheme Among FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted
Seen Her? Woman Behind Alleged $4B Ponzi-Style Scheme Among FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted She promised the next Bitcoin. What investors got instead was a $4 billion black hole—and a fugitive who hasn’t been seen since 2017. Ruja Ignatova, the woman once known as the “Cryptoqueen,” remains one of the world’s most elusive fugitives and is currently on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list.  The founder of the fraudulent cryptocurrency OneCoin, Ignatova is accused of orchestrating a massive Ponzi-style scheme that duped investors around the globe out of billions. Authorities say the scam began in 2014, when Ignatova launched OneCoin Ltd., a Bulgaria-based company that marketed itself…

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by Joe Lombardi
News
$4.3B Now Recovered For Madoff Ponzi Scheme Victims, DOJ Says $4.3B Now Recovered For Madoff Ponzi Scheme Victims, DOJ Says
$4.3B Now Recovered For Madoff Ponzi Scheme Victims, DOJ Says More than $4.3 billion has now been recovered for victims of Bernie Madoff’s massive and infamous Ponzi scheme, the Justice Department announced, as part of a decade-long effort that has compensated over 40,000 people worldwide for nearly 94 percent of their losses. The DOJ says  its 10th and final distribution from the Madoff Victim Fund (MVF), provided more than $131 million to over 23,000 victims. The latest distribution marks the culmination of a decade-long effort to recover and return forfeited funds tied to Madoff's fraudulent investment empire. Most victims, primarily small inv…

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by Joe Lombardi
Police & Fire
$6M Ponzi Scheme: Braggart Hedge Fund 'Tycoon' Busted By Undercover NJ Fed $6M Ponzi Scheme: Braggart Hedge Fund 'Tycoon' Busted By Undercover NJ Fed
$6M Ponzi Scheme: Braggart Hedge Fund 'Tycoon' Busted By Undercover NJ Fed The well-heeled hedge fund tycoon from Chicago seemingly couldn’t help but boast of some spectacular achievements during a meeting with an investment manager in New Jersey. There were annual returns of 336 percent, more than $2 billion raised in just 60 days and a list of investors that included a well-known owner of a professional sports team, authorities said. Phillip Galles, 57, also took a page from George Santos’s book, claiming that he’d graduated from a prominent university in the Midwest, they said. Galles’s “outlandish claims of experience, expertise and success” were all BS, a co…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Ex-Trump PAC Exec Who Blamed 'That B****' Hillary Clinton For Probe Indicted By Feds In NJ Ex-Trump PAC Exec Who Blamed 'That B****' Hillary Clinton For Probe Indicted By Feds In NJ
Ex-Trump PAC Exec Who Blamed 'That B****' Hillary Clinton For Probe Indicted By Feds In NJ A former pro-Trump PAC exec who blamed "that b**** Hillary Clinton" for his troubles with the law swindled more than two dozen investors out of $7 million, an indictment returned Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Newark alleges. U.S. Homeland Security agents a year ago this month smashed the alleged Ponzi scheme that they said New Jersey-based businessman David Schamens, 65, used to fund a lavish lifestyle. Now comes a March 28 indictment that charges him with wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering. Schamens, of Greensboro, North Carolina, used some of the investment money fro…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
NJ FEDS: Miracle-Aspirin Investment Scam Sends Long Island Man To Prison For 4½ Years NJ FEDS: Miracle-Aspirin Investment Scam Sends Long Island Man To Prison For 4½ Years
NJ Feds: Miracle-Aspirin Investment Scam Sends Long Island Man To Prison For 4½ Years A Long Island man must spend the next 4½ years in prison for scamming investors out of $3.5 million through what he claimed was a revolutionary new aspirin, federal authorities in New Jersey said. Donald A. Milne III, a 57-year-old repeat offender from Massapequa, defrauded more than 70 victims from throughout the country, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said. All thought they'd invested in what he touted as a “fast-acting form of powdered aspirin that could instantly stop heart attacks and strokes," Sellinger said. Milne used the money instead for a Caribbean vacation, boating expe…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Feds: Ponzi Schemer Funded House, Car, More With $6.8M From Investors In NJ, Elsewhere Feds: Ponzi Schemer Funded House, Car, More With $6.8M From Investors In NJ, Elsewhere
Feds: Ponzi Schemer Funded House, Car, More With $6.8M From Investors In NJ, Elsewhere New Jersey residents were among more than two dozen victims who lost a combined $6.8 million to a North Carolina con man running a Ponzi scheme, federal authorities charged. David Schamens, 64, of Greensboro, NC, promised annual return rates of 12% to 30% when he began soliciting investments in 2014 in Secaucus-based TradeStream Analytics LTD, as well as in other entities with names such as TD Trading LLC, TFG Trading LLC, and Tradedesk Financial Group Inc., U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said. He then launched Tradestream Algo Fund, an algorithm-based trading pool that he clai…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
NY Con Man Admits Scamming $3.5M From Elderly Investors In NJ, Elsewhere For Heart Attack Pill NY Con Man Admits Scamming $3.5M From Elderly Investors In NJ, Elsewhere For Heart Attack Pill
NY Con Man Admits Scamming $3.5M From Elderly Investors In NJ, Elsewhere For Heart Attack Pill A convicted con artist from Long Island admitted in federal court in Trenton on Monday that he scammed investors in a purportedly revolutionary new aspirin -- most of them elderly -- out of $3.5 million that he used as his own personal piggybank. Donald A. Milne III, a 57-year-old repeat offender from Massapequa, defrauded more than 70 victims from throughout the country who though they'd invested in Instaprin, which he touted as a “fast-acting form of powdered aspirin that could instantly stop heart attacks and strokes," Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. He used the money instead…

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by Jerry DeMarco