Ponzi schemer flees on water scooter, shysters rent parking spots and more

Ponzi schemer flees on water scooter across and under lake

Bernie Madoff needed an underwater scooter! Accused Ponzi schemer Matthew Piercey, 44, tried to escape authorities on a red submergible Yamaha 350Li scooter across, and under, Shasta Lake Nov. 16, 2020, in California, according to a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) release and The New York Times.

Piercey, of Palo Cedro, California, fled in his truck to Shasta Lake when members of the California Highway Patrol tried to apprehend him. They arrested him after he emerged from the lake on the scooter in wet street clothes. A grand jury had returned an indictment Nov. 12 after charging him with wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering and witness tampering.

Kenneth Winton, 67, of Oroville, California, Piercey’s business partner, was charged separately by criminal information with conspiracy to commit fraud.

According to court documents, from about July 2015 through August 2020, Piercey carried out an investment fraud scheme that raised a total of approximately $35 million in investor funds. Piercey used his firms, Family Wealth Legacy and Zolla, to solicit funds from investors using a variety of false and misleading statements, including those about trading algorithms, the success of the companies’ investment strategies and the liquidity of investments.

(See the DOJ release and Ponzi Scheme Suspect Uses Underwater Scooter to Flee F.B.I., by John Ismay, The New York Times, Nov. 18, 2020.)

Shysters rent U.K. parking spots they don’t own

According to the BBC, Simon Gallagher received complaints from tenants at his London flat that strangers were leaving cars in the dedicated parking bays. He found that a fraudster was charging eight pounds per day via the “Just Park” website for his tenants’ parking spaces.

Other fraudsters were also raking in the pounds at other dedicated parking spots around London through the online parking service and app.

The Just Park’s company founder and CEO apologized for the purloined parking problems. “We do have stringent checks in place to prevent spaces from being listed fraudulently,” he said. The company said it removed the unauthorized advertisements.

(See Just Park apologises after scammers place fake parking space ads, by Jon Douglas, BBC News, Nov. 8, 2020.)

Alleged fraudsters steal $6 million in foreclosure scheme

Many distressed Southern Californians lost their homes because nine people allegedly claimed they’d prevent foreclosures, but instead they stole $6 million from the victims.

According to the Los Angeles Daily News, the nine defendants claimed they could halt foreclosures if homeowners would send them monthly payments. The alleged fraudsters would then delay foreclosures and evictions by filing fraudulent bankruptcy documents, false court documents and false fractional interest grant deeds, according to the California attorney general.

The culprits would send the documents to the servicers of mortgage loans, which would initially stop foreclosures by invoking the bankruptcy “automatic stay.” Regardless, victims would still lose their homes.

(See 9 people accused in Southern California foreclosure fraud scheme, City News Service, Los Angeles Daily News, Nov. 21, 2020.)