4 Adventists on Trial for Fraud

[Stan]

BY AL WEBB ©2007 Religion News Service

our churchgoers have gone on trial in a London court on charges of conning fellow Seventh-day Adventists out of about $6.3 million through a series of bogus investment schemes.

Prosecutors said the quartet, themselves Seventh-day Adventists, used their shared religious backgrounds to lure more than 1,000 of their fellow worshipers into phony investments with promises of return as much as 25 times their original outlay.

The four posed as traders in the British capital's financial district and told their victims "that money that was obtained from them was going to be invested on their behalf," one prosecuting attorney, Stephen Winberg, told Southwark Crown Court.

"It was not," Winberg said. "Hardly any of it was invested."

Instead, authorities said, the four went on a monumental escapade of "wild extravagance," spending their takings from their scams on luxury cars, vacations, money-laundering and a $100,000-a-day spending spree in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East.

While in Dubai, prosecutors said, the alleged con men—Lindani Mangena, Dean Hinkson, Curtis Powell and Jordan Huie--put down a deposit on a luxury apartment valued at $9.4 million.

At one point during their seven-month scam, police said, the four were raking in so much money that they had to buy a cash-counting machine to keep track of it all. "The aim, as with all frauds, was to get victims to part with their money," said Stephen Winberg. The victims were promised "staggering rates of return" on their investment—rates "so attractive that people tended to suspend their judgment."

“This certainly appears to be a classic case of alleged affinity fraud,” says Thomas Wetmore, an attorney in the General Conference Office of General Counsel, based at the Adventist World Headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. “We have seen many similar cases over the years where the perpetrators takern advantage of friends, family members, and fellow church members.”

“Too often people don’t get the advice they should. I would urge be everyone, when presented with an investment opportunity, to seek counsel from an attorney or a professional financial advisor advice,” Wetmore says. “If the investment plan sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

Source

[Stan]

ANYONE heard of this "Thomas Wetmore" guy?

[Guest charis]

I noticed that too

[Tom Wetmore]

Yeah, I think I know that guy...

It looks like it got rushed to the website... Honest, I don't talk with typos, at least not most of the time.

Tom

[Bravus]

Nice work, Tom.

Folks, if an investment sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is.

[Stan]

here is the source

http://www.adventistreview.org/article.php?id=1613

[darlene]

Some in California and some near us in British Columbia got taken in a scham by a former pastor. Can't remember his name (can you Stan?)but, there's a program coming out about it on CTV very soon. Some of my friends got taken in by him. He was investing off shore or out of country. I understand he is still trying to make it work in Ukraine now.

[darlene]

Oh, yes, his name just came to me. It was Stanheiser or smiliar

[LifeHiscost]

Nice work, Tom.

Folks, if an investment sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is.

"For the wicked man boasts (sings the praises) of his own heart's desire, and the one greedy for gain curses and spurns, yes, renounces and despises the Lord."

Psalm 10:3 AMP

"If a bird sees a trap being set,

it knows to stay away.

But these people set an ambush for themselves;

they are trying to get themselves killed.

Such is the fate of all who are greedy for money;"

Prov 1:17-19 NLT

Regards!

[Tom Wetmore]

Yeah, I am famialr with that one too...

If the history of similar fraud cases of this sort continue in these cases, most people that are victims of this sort of fraud usually get very little, if any, of their money back. The money usually gets spent or well hidden quickly.

The news report of the case in UK didn't give a lot of details, but it was most likely at its core a Ponzi scheme with new "investor" money being used to pay out earlier investors' "return" on their investment. The largest Ponzi scheme here in the US was sadly also religiously based affinity fraud, preying on fellow Christians playing into their desire to both do good and do well at the same time with the same dollars. It was well organized, operating under the name "Greater Ministries" and bilked Christians from a variety of denominations out of more than a half billion dollars. One of their largest group targets were Mennonites in PA. The top seven running that scheme are now sitting behind bars. Their sense of organization, detailed records and video taping of their group pitches, etc. were their undoing since it created a great record for prosecution for the Feds. A significant number of Adventists got sucked into that one.

Tom

[Gregory Matthews]

There are many reasons why people get taken in by such schemes. One is ignorance. Another is fraud on the part of the people proposing the scheme. A third is simple greed on the part of the people who are taken.

I do not say that all are present in every case, or that all are present in any one case. But the above three are common aspects of a successful fraud.

In any case, victims can defend agains such loss by attempting to make certain that two of the three are not factors.

In the case of ignorance, they can do the work to obtain the information, become knowledgeable in regard to financial mattears, and not invest their funds until they fully understand and know that it is a financially responsible lparoposal. This means understanding the risks that are inherent in any financial ventue.

In the case of afinity fraud they should hae an opinoin as to the knowledge and character of the one who proposes the investment.

Lastly one should consider what is going on in them. If their motive is greed, they should recognize and deal with it.

NOTE: Again, I am not stating that greed, or any other factor is an element in all such fraud.