WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top U.S. securities regulators halted a $4.4 million Ponzi scheme that targeted deaf investors in the United States and Japan, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday.
Since at least September 2007, Hawaii-based Billion Coupons and its chief executive Marvin Cooper raised $4.4 million from 125 investors through personal contacts, seminars at deaf community centers and its website, the SEC alleged.
The SEC obtained a court order to freeze Cooper and Billion Coupons' assets. The SEC, criticized for not uncovering Bernard Madoff's alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme earlier, also alleged that Cooper used at least $1.4 million in investor funds for personal expenses.
The SEC alleges that Billion Coupons and Cooper told investors that their funds would be invested in foreign exchange markets and that they would receive returns of up to 25 percent compounded monthly from such trading.
But instead, Billions Coupons and Cooper lost the small portion of investor funds it invested in foreign exchange trading and failed to generate enough money to pay the purported returns, the SEC said. Billion Coupons and Cooper operated a Ponzi scheme by paying earlier investors with money for later investors.
(Reporting by Rachelle Younglai)
Source: Reuters North American News Service
Since at least September 2007, Hawaii-based Billion Coupons and its chief executive Marvin Cooper raised $4.4 million from 125 investors through personal contacts, seminars at deaf community centers and its website, the SEC alleged.
The SEC obtained a court order to freeze Cooper and Billion Coupons' assets. The SEC, criticized for not uncovering Bernard Madoff's alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme earlier, also alleged that Cooper used at least $1.4 million in investor funds for personal expenses.
The SEC alleges that Billion Coupons and Cooper told investors that their funds would be invested in foreign exchange markets and that they would receive returns of up to 25 percent compounded monthly from such trading.
But instead, Billions Coupons and Cooper lost the small portion of investor funds it invested in foreign exchange trading and failed to generate enough money to pay the purported returns, the SEC said. Billion Coupons and Cooper operated a Ponzi scheme by paying earlier investors with money for later investors.
(Reporting by Rachelle Younglai)
Source: Reuters North American News Service
1 comment:
I knew Cox was in on the corruption all these guys should go to jail.
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