Business Opportunity Criminals Plead Guilty and Receive Jail Time
The Department of Justice, Southern District of Florida announced the conviction of some of the other participants in the Cash Links System business opportunity fraud.
"James Settembrino and Bernardo Susi pled guilty yesterday, while Lee Samuel, Charles Bohn and Benjamin Goss pled guilty today.
According to the charges, these defendants and others engaged in the fraudulent sale of business opportunities through Cash Link Systems, Inc. Cash Link purported to sell cash-less ATMs to the public, along with assistance in establishing, maintaining, and operating a cash-less ATM business. Potential purchasers were told that after being placed in the locations Cash Link provided, the cash-less ATMs would be used by members of the public, who would swipe their debit cards and receive a receipt. The receipt, in turn, would be taken to the location's cash register for cash or store credit. According to the co-conspirators' sales pitch, a business opportunity purchaser would earn substantial profits from the ATM fees generated when members of the public used the purchaser's cash-less ATMs.
The Information alleges and the defendants admitted that the defendants misrepresented the profits that could be earned by purchasing a Cash Link distributorship. Potential purchasers were told that for a purchase price of approximately $12,000, Cash Link would, among other things: perform the most difficult and time consuming part of the business - securing appropriate, viable, and high-traffic locations in which to place the cash-less ATMs; relocate any ATM that underperformed; and only sell distributorships in a limited geographic area. According to the charges, these representations were false." (my emphasis)
If these representations were true, then there would be very little risk to this venture. But if there is very little risk to this venture, you should expect a very low return on your investment.
The relationship between risk and reward is something that intelligent and informed people have trouble with, viz. identifying in an investment opportunity both the risk and reward. It is a bad thing if there are no apparent risks, but very large rewards. When you are offered something for nothing, somebody will get nothing for something. Can you guess who?
