OPEN FORUM: Securities Fraud -- Due Diligence in Finance Stock and Bond Fraud, including Boiler Rooms / Pump and Dump Schemes, Mutual Fund & Hedge Fund Fraud, FOREX scams, plus Churning, Private Placements, Venture and Bridge Funding, IPOs, Viaticals Fraud, HYIP and Prime Bank scams, MTNs, Historical Notes, Recovery Schemes, etc.

This is one of the most common financial scams. The scam artists will a wild tale of fortune including some or all of the following.

The scam artists will spin a long line of hokey nonsense relating to the post-World War II Bretton Woods accords, “off-sheet” financing by the “Top 50” worldwide banks, and “guaranteed” or “risk-free” trading. They will tell you that they (or somebody they are working for) is “one of only five (or six, or seven, or eight – or whatever number they pull out of the air at that particular moment) traders in the world who are familiar with these types of trades and are capable of pulling them off.” They will tell you that these trades are done at the “$100M” level only, but that miraculously you can start off with a very small amount of money and margin yourself into a $100 million position. Alternatively, they tell you that you can get a bunch of friends together and “pool” the necessary funds.

They will also tell you that they or whoever they are working for has done these trades for fifteen or twenty years, and have secretly made hundreds of millions of dollars. They are allowing you to do these trades instead of doing them themselves because they have made enough money and want to help you benefit some church, charitable, or humanitarian purpose. They will tell you that there is “NO WAY” that you money can disappear, and that it will sit in your own bank account unmolested until your hundreds of millions arrive. They will tell you that you can make astronomical interest rates, such as 20% to 80% per week, and that exponentially your profits will skyrocket.

How the Scam Artists
Get Your Money
The scam artists prey on your lack of financial sophistication. If you money was truly “not at risk” there would be absolutely no reason to have to put it up. Yet, the scam artists come up with a bunch of bogus tales about “off-balance sheet financing” and other hooey that convinces you to do one of the following:

+ You deposit your money in an account with a “Prime Bank” such as Citibank (which doesn’t know the scam is being perpetrated). The scam artists forge a letter of credit which they then exercise and transfer your money offshore, never to be found.

+ You deposit your money in an account with a “Prime Bank” such as CreditSuisse (which doesn’t know the scam is being perpetrated). The scam artists didn’t tell you that the account is a “correspondent account” held in that bank for their own bogus bank that they formed, and they simply transfer your money offshore, never to be found.

+ The scam artists convince you to put your money in a safe deposit box. Later, they tell you that it is stupid to keep money in cash where it is not earning interest. Instead, they say they will get “the traders” to accept a “bond”, such as a Houston Railroad Bond or an Emperial Chinese Bond that earns astronomic rates of interest. Only much later do you discover that the bonds are completely worthless.

And so forth and so on. Once your money has been deposited in the bank, there are about a hundred different ways for the scam artists to get at it.

THE LIES MADE TO PERPETRATE THE SCAM "A big lie is more plausible than the truth." -- Ernest Hemingway

Complete Lie: "There is a secret banking system where the big banks make astronomical returns, and you can't participate unless you pool with others or place your money with someone who has an place in the system."

This is a COMPLETE LIE, and anyone who says this is a scam artist. We regularly work with the major offshore banks, and have any friends and acquaintances at these banks, and can tell you that they laugh at the allegation that there is a "secret" banking system which produces crazily high returns as the promoters of the bank debenture scam suggest.

COMPLETE LIE: "The U.S. government is covering up this secret banking system."

This is a COMPLETE LIE that the U.S. government is somehow covering up this phantom banking system. This is NOT TRUE and anyone who says this is a scam artist. First, as shown above, it doesn't exist. Second, trading in currency is tightly monitored by literally hundreds of private groups worldwide, and even a small trade would instantly be recognized by these private groups.

COMPLETE LIE: "The program uses International Chamber of Commerce Approved Forms."

The International Chamber of Commerce does NOT approve forms for these programs, and anyone who claims this is a scam artist. To the contrary, the International Chamber of Commerce has put out warnings that it has not approved any such forms, and that forgers are illegally making up such documents without either the knowledge or approval of the ICC. Other forgeries which have been found include forgeries of documents purporting to be from the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank (FRB), the U.S. Department of Treasury, the Bank of England, and even the Queen of England!

If you see anywhere in the scam artists' materials that they or their forms are "approved" by the ICC run! This is the baldest of lies.

COMPLETE LIE: "These securities do not need to be registered with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission or the State Securities Commission of the state wherein they are marketed or sold."

This is NOT TRUE and anyone who says this is a LIAR. To the contrary, when legitimate bank debentures are sold to the public, they are ALWAYS registered with the Securities Commission of the state wherein they are sold, and in most cases are also registered with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission. IF YOU CANNOT CALL YOUR STATE SECURITIES COMMISSIONER AND CONFIRM THAT THE DEBENTURES HAVE BEEN REGISTERED, IT IS ALMOST CERTAIN THAT THEY ARE BEING MARKETED AND SOLD ILLEGALLY.

Private Placement Lies: Many scam artists will pitch that their schemes are somehow exempt from regulation because they are a "private placement". The truth is that many states require private placements to be registered, and at any rate if the scheme raises over $2 million aggregate amongst the states (i.e., $2 million anywhere) it MUST registered with the Securities & Exchange Commission!!!!! So, if someone says that they have raised $20 million dollars but they are not registered, it ain't a legitimate deal.

COMPLETE LIE: "There is a major U.S. bank which guarantees these instruments."

This is NOT TRUE and anyone who says this is a LIAR. The scam artists will tell you that they cannot disclose the identity of the U.S. bank which guarantees the investment, or else will tell you the name of whichever bank they pull off the top of their head, but either tell you that you should not contact the bank directly, or they get one of their scam artist buddies to call you up and represent that they are a bank officer. No U.S. bank participates in these schemes, period, and many of them issue warnings to the public not to get involved in this scams.

A recent variation of this scam is for the scam artists to set up an offshore bank with a name which is very similar to an international bank, such as "Barclays International Bank" (which doesn't exist and plays off the Barclays name). These offshore banks never have any real assets or backing, and their guarantees are worthless.

COMPLETE LIE: "Others have made money with these programs."

Nobody except the scam artists have ever made money with these programs. A few people have gotten a small portion of their money back, usually for helping the scam artist scam somebody else, and that is it. We've seen hundreds of these scams the past year, but not a single person who could actually document that they made even a single penny over what they invested into it.

People who claim that they have made money on these programs always fall into one of two categories:

Ringers, being persons set up and in cahoots with the scam artists to claim that they have made money; and Suckers, folks who have been scammed and are now going along with the scam artist on the condition that the scam artist will repay them a portion of their money lost for getting new suckers into these programs. COMPLETE LIE: "These programs are back by or involved with the International Monetary Fund."

This is a total load of bull hockey (see Notice at right). The IMF has repeatedly warned about this scam.

So, if somebody claims that their investment has IMF involvement, you know it is a total lie.

RESOURCE Prime Bank/High Yield Investment Schemes Report from the Fraud Section, Criminal Division of the Department of Justice.

FINALLY! An HYIP Program that Works! - Parsons Heritage Offshore Opportunities Ltd. is the ONLY prime bank and HYIP program that YOU can trust! Strongly Endorsed by Quatloos!

RESOURCE HYIPs and Prime Bank Notes: Fact or Fraud? Expose of Prime Bank NOtes, Corporate Roll Programs, Medium Term Notes, Bank Guarantees, Letters of Credit, and Stand By Letters of Credit, written by Investor Data Exchange.

HYIP/PRIME BANK/BANK DEBENTURES CASES

United States of America v. Parr

United States of America v. Rattan Lal Aggarwal

United States of America v. Arthur R. Andrews

United States of America v. Gary D. Bolin

United States of America v. Richard C. Gravatt

United States of America v. Grady Lewis Hand

United States of America v. Edward Keith Howick

SEC v. John D. Lauer and Clifton Capital Investors L.P.

United States of America v. Herbert J. Lewis and Vernon Abrahams

United States of America v. James F. Moored

National Council Of The Churches Of Christ In The USA v. First Union National Bank Of Virginia

United States of America v. Delton Owen Olson

United States of America v. Joseph Polichemi, ET AL

United States of America v. Al Richards, Roger Braugh, and Kurt Latrasse

United States of America v. Morreon B. Rude

United States of America v. William Martin Valuck