Fraud News from Around the Blogs
Tracy Coenen has a good story about Barry Minkow and Pacific Wealth,
Barry Minkow Fraud Busting: Pacific Wealth Management
Is anyone surprised anymore when they learn about another fraud bust, courtesy of Barry Minkow and his Fraud Discovery Institute?This time it’s Pacific Wealth Management. And it seems that the press has largely ignored this one. The SEC is alleging that Pacific Wealth Management was selling unregistered securities, with the investment offerings ranging from real estate to foreign currency. There were up to 800 investors who mortgaged their houses to invest with this company, and it is believed that they lost millions of dollars.
There is a nice frontloading story over at the Pink Truth,
I think many Mary Kay sales directors have convinced themselves that they are ‘working ethically.’ That they’ve made themselves believe that there is nothing wrong with the Mary Kay pyramid scheme and nothing wrong with the fact that almost all women will lose money in Mary Kay.Here is an example of just such thinking. This Mary Kay sales director thinks she’s doing the right thing by ‘only’ having consultants purchase $1,800 or $2,400 of inventory when they start. Even though we all know that ‘part-time’ consultants don’t need that much.
At Entrepreneur, there is story about preventing inventor fraud
Protecting Yourself Against Scams and Crooks
It's a common story, yet it breaks my heart every time someone tells me their version: An aspiring inventor sends his or her product to an invention promotion company, pays a large fee (often their entire savings) and gets nothing in return. Not only have they been embarrassed, but they've also been depleted of the money they could've used to further develop their product.Often these "firms" will charge thousands of dollars, promising to bring an inventor's product to market within a specified time period. They prey on the inventor's excitement and passion. These firms advertise on TV, radio, the internet, newspapers and in magazine classified sections. Their guarantee and promise of success is tempting.
