THE PONZI REAL ESTATE FUND

Enron was never a rouge company that cheated their employees, investors and clients out of their money. Stealing money from employees, investors and clients is the way with many businesses today. For the most part government does nothing to improve this situation. The SEC is one of the few institutions that are currently investigating some of the fraudsters in America but, they have no power to prosecute the fraudsters and recommend anything except civil penalties. The power of the SEC is limited to fines and disgorgements. Even those committing Ponzi schemes, which are one of the most blatant forms of fraud, are often placed under no personal jeopardy of losing their freedom even if they admit to the crime.

Ponzi schemes are perpetrated in their most basic form by paying previous investors money using funds provided by new investors. As long as there is more money coming in from new investors than going out to old investors the Ponzi scheme can continue. The following is just another tale of a Ponzi scheme that was discovered. The next several paragraphs are taken from the SEC website:


“Washington, D.C., Sept. 21, 2010 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a Minneapolis-based attorney and two San Francisco-area promoters with defrauding investors in a real estate lending fund by concealing the financial collapse of the fund's sole business partner.
The SEC alleges that Todd A. Ducksonn attorney who resides in Prior Lake, Minn., and Michael W. Bozora and Timothy R. Redpath, who reside in Marin County, Calif., raised more than $21 million from investors in the Capital Solutions Monthly Income Fund after the fund's sole business partner defaulted on its obligations to the fund. The SEC alleges that after this May 2008 default, the fund - whose sole business was to make real estate loans to a single borrower - had no meaningful income and was using new investor funds to pay existing investors.

"The fund's real estate lending strategy failed due to the collapse of the fund's sole borrower. Instead of disclosing this fact, Bozora, Redpath, and Duckson falsely claimed that the fund was positioned to profit from the U.S. real estate downturn," said Robert J. Burson, Senior Associate Regional Director of the SEC's Chicago Regional Office. "Investors were entitled to know true facts rather than the misleading positive spin that Bozora, Redpath, and Duckson provided."

The SEC alleges that after the default, Duckson, Bozora, and Redpath told investors that the fund was poised to take advantage of attractive lending opportunities provided by the collapse in the U.S. credit and real estate markets, when in fact the fund' s business strategy had failed.

According to the SEC's complaint filed in federal court in Minneapolis, Bozora and Redpath launched the fund in 2004 and, through August 2009, raised approximately $74 million from approximately 450 investors from across the U.S. After the May 2008 default by the fund's sole borrower, the fund foreclosed on the borrower's real estate projects. The SEC alleges that in late 2008, Bozora and Redpath asked Duckson, who was acting as the fund's outside counsel, to take over managing the fund. The SEC alleges that Duckson then began managing the fund while Bozora and Redpath continued to raise money from new investors. The SEC alleges that Bozora, Redpath, and Duckson failed to disclose the default and foreclosure to investors for several months.

The SEC alleges that Bozora, Redpath, and Duckson eventually made some disclosure of the default and foreclosure, but they minimized the impact of these events and continued to misleadingly promote the fund's ability to make new loans. In fact, the fund's ability to make new loans was limited. After the default and foreclosure, the fund was required to use most of its assets to maintain its existing real estate portfolio acquired through the foreclosure and to pay existing investors.

The SEC's complaint also charges True North Finance Corporation, a Minneapolis real estate lending company that merged with the fund in 2009, and True North's Chief Financial Officer Owen Mark Williams with accounting fraud. The SEC alleges that in 2008 and 2009, Williams caused True North to overstate its revenues by as much as 99 percent. The SEC alleges that True North improperly recognized revenue on interest from borrowers who were not paying True North and were in poor financial condition. The SEC further alleges that True North's recognition of revenue was contrary to its own revenue recognition policy, which stated that it would not recognize revenue where payment of interest was 90 days past due.

The SEC is seeking permanent injunctions, disgorgement, prejudgment interest and civil penalties against all of the defendants, and officer-director bars against Bozora, Redpath, Duckson, and Williams."

Perhaps these fraudsters might be bared from doing bad things in the future but, the future is a mysterious place. Today my own country is replete with criminals that make very large incomes based on bribery and fraudulant operations like Ponzi schemes.