Three men arrested in $364 million Ponzi scheme

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/09/20/three-men-arrested-in-364-mil.html

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Hmmm, at least one of them lives close to my house. Should I shit on his lawn? Eh, not worth my excrement. :poop:

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They’re confident they’ll be acquitted now that Dee Reynolds is on the case to explain this was in fact a “reverse funnel” system:

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Don’t rob rich people, fellow Americans. You might actually see the inside of a jail cell. It’s not like defrauding bank customers or attempting rape.

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aida

Coffee’s for closers!

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I have a few thousand dollars invested, (other than my 401k) and the LAST thing I would put my money into is “debt portfolios”. Well, maybe before a tulip scheme or a Darien fund, but almost last.

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They should have stuck with Amway.

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Can’t feel too bad for 1%er’s exploiting the debt of others while trying to become .01%er’s and getting conned in the process.

A pox on all their houses (mansions).

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We tried investing through Lending Club for a while. At first it seemed like we were helping people through the miracle of micro-loans. Gradually over the course of a year I came to realize instead of helping people, we were perpetuating their problems. We liquidated and closed our account. It makes my skin crawl to think about.

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Arrested? Isn’t this simply “alternative finance?” Why do you hate the Free Market?

I visualized them being approached in prison by representatives of the Trump administration, and offered secret cabinet positions, ala The Dirty Dozen.


ETA To clarify, not that the plot of The Dirty Dozen was that, just the approaching part.

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According to the related complaint filed by the SEC, the victim investors included … financial advisors

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I came to realize instead of helping people, we were perpetuating their problems.

How so? I always considered Lending Club to be more like bank lenders than payday lenders. Is there something I don’t know?

A) The interest rates are too damn high.
B) The borrowers just continue a cycle of borrowing and defaulting.
C) The whole thing, as I experienced it, was a platform for speculators to buy and sell imperiled debt.

I actually came out ahead on the thing. I can’t remember exactly how I worked it, but I remember my goal was to always unload loans before they reached a certain age. But that’s no way to make money. I’m not sure what will help these people, but this isn’t it.

Maybe things have changed since we tried it out. I think that was probably 2013 or so. I’m just relating my perception based on my experiences, not giving investing advice.

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I’ve recently seen ads touting a cryptocurrency baed on crowd sourced geoleocation. The ad observed that the uS Government wastes a million dollars a day maintaining GPS…

So-- it involves buying a set of dongles, attaching one to each of your cats’ collars and ummmm…

The fraud is of course loathsome, but so is investing in debt portfolios. Who wants to invest in the business of misery?

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americans…?

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nine properties, 26 luxury cars, one boat, interest in an aircraft, a life insurance policy, seven and nine carat diamond rings, and a 23 carat diamond bracelet

Some of these are easily portable when people realise the truth and you flee overseas just ahead of the injunctions. Others, not so much.

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Yeah, stuff like this always makes me wonder - what’s their endgame? Esp with sinking all that money in large tangible assets. Unless their actual plan was “let’s live like kings until we go to prison”?