Nairalanders,

Ponzi Scheme is everywhere, including Nigeria.

Be very careful about Ponzi schemes claiming to yield quick financial gains. People beware of get rich quick schemes. Read this news article from USA:

http://chicagobreakingbusiness.com/2010/12/feds-charges-more-than-500-with-financial-fraud.html

U.S. officials said Monday they have charged more than 500 people in what they dubbed the largest-ever nationwide sweep of scam artists preying on individual investors.

The announcement comes as federal agencies and the Obama administration are facing pressure to punish big-name companies and individuals for their role in the financial mess. So far, the U.S. has won few high-profile cases, compared with the aftermath of the savings and loan crisis and the dot-com bust.

The sting announced Monday, named “Operation Broken Trust,” targeted fraudsters and Ponzi schemers around the country who victimized the elderly and other vulnerable people with pump-and-dump and other scams.

Officials said they have netted more than 100 criminal convictions and nearly 350 criminal charges in the probe. But many of the cases were in progress before operation started in August.

“Some cases make big headlines; some perpetrators are high-profile. Many of the cases today do not share those characteristics,” Securities and Exchange Commission Enforcement Chief Robert Khuzami said at a press conference at the Justice Department to announce the results of the probe.

Officials said the schemes harmed more than 120,000 people and that criminals stole thousands and sometimes millions of dollars from victims. The losses from just the criminal cases total $8.3 billion, while losses from the civil cases amount to $2.1 billion.

“These are staggering, staggering numbers,” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said at the press conference.

Victims, in many cases, were preyed upon by people they knew well, including their neighbors or members of their church, officials said.

Eldon A. Gresham Jr., a Texas man indicted for an alleged foreign-exchange scam, allegedly targeted his fellow parishioners with claims that his success in foreign-exchange trading was a “blessing from God,” according to Holder.

Gresham allegedly collected nearly $16 million from at least 90 investors from January 2004 through June 2009 by falsely claiming that he generated consistent monthly returns of 10%, according to the Justice Department. In fact, Gresham was losing money on his foreign-exchange trading, Justice said.

In another case, Juan Rangel pleaded guilty in October for his role in a Ponzi scheme that targeted investors recruited through Spanish-language newspapers and magazines.

Rangel and his company Financial Plus Investments allegedly guaranteed investors 60 percent returns each year from the profits of the company’s real-estate and lending businesses. But the Justice Department said he used investors’ money to make payments to other investors and to pay the mortgage on his $3 million home and make monthly payments for his Lamborghini sports car.

Khuzami said scams targeting individual investors are on the rise “as more and more people look to third parties to invest their money through intermediaries, money managers and the like.”

Already, 87 defendants have been sentenced for wrongdoing uncovered by the probe, with several people receiving sentences of more than 20 years. One person was sentenced to 85 years behind bars, Holder said. Meanwhile, civil charges have been filed against 189 people.

The sweep’s results send a strong warning to would-be fraudsters, Holder said. “Cheating investors out of their earnings and savings is no longer a safe business plan,” Holder said.

FBI Executive Assistant Director Shawn Henry, speaking at the press conference, said officials also aimed to put the public on alert. “The American people need to understand the threat that they face and their responsibility to remain vigilant,” he said.

The probe began in August by an inter-agency task force set up in November 2009 by U.S. President Barack Obama to investigate financial fraud.

Officials across the U.S. government, including from the U.S. Postal Service, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the SEC and the Internal Revenue Service, coordinated on the sting.

Henry said 48 out of the FBI’s 56 field offices across the country were involved in the sweep. He added the number of FBI agents assigned to securities fraud cases has increased nearly 50 percent during the past three years. Since January 2009, the FBI has opened more than 200 Ponzi scheme cases, he said.