“Fraud aimed at religious groups is so virulent and effective that the only safe course is to refuse to consider any investment pitched by even a subtle appeal to your faith.” — The Vigilant Investor, p. 104
We track the states in which the investment scams that we write about were headquartered. No state is unrepresented on the list, but some took longer to make the list than others. Montana was late to the dance, but has added three stories of investment frauds in the past six months. The latest involves allegations of a classic Ponzi scheme coupled with a classic affinity fraud. According to the Lawton-Constitution:
Restitution Numbers Highlight a Very Dangerous Investing Landscape
Investment fraud is the one industry that never slumps.
I give speeches all over the country about investment fraud and the due diligence tactics necessary to expose it. One of the things people want to know is just how big the problem really is. I tell them that the FBI estimates that Americans lose $40 billion every year to investment fraud. That’s two Madoff’s worth of losses every year. And that number doesn’t begin to tell the story, because it is drawn from criminal prosecutions. Most investment crime is never prosecuted. The real number is much closer to $100 billion every year. Think of it as five Madoff mega-frauds worth of losses every year. (more…)