Amish Man Charged with Running $33M Ponzi Scheme

[nalnn]

Source: Accounting Today

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a civil injunction action charging a 77-year-old Amish man from the village of Sugarcreek, Ohio, with targeting his fellow Amish as investors in a fraudulent offering.

The SEC’s complaint, filed on Tuesday, alleges that from as early as 1986 through June 2010, Monroe L. Beachy, doing business as A&M Investments, raised at least $33 million from more than 2,600 investors through the offer and sale of investment contracts. The vast majority of Beachy’s investors were Amish.

Beachy enticed investors by promising interest rates that were greater than banks were offering at the time. Many of Beachy’s investors treated their investment accounts like money market accounts, from which they could withdraw their money at any time. Beachy told his investors that their money would be used to purchase risk-free U.S. government securities, which would generate returns for the investors. In reality, Beachy used the money to make speculative investments in high-yield junk bonds, mutual funds and stocks.

Read more: http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/Amish-Man-Charged-Running-Ponzi-Scheme-57340-1.html

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Yikes! You just can't trust anybody anymore.

[virgogal]

1. Nope,you can't trust anyone and somehow I find that quite sad.

[AlbertCat]

12. you can't trust anyone

Why would you expect to be able to trust the Amish? They are not quaint. They are oppressive, scary and ridiculous. And you should NEVER trust anyone who is over-religious.

[FSogol]

2. As Conan O'Brien said, they caught him because he was the only one w/ a horse pulling a Lamborghini

:shrug:

[Ian David]

3. I'm surprised his victims didn't research this stuff on the internet first. Oh, wait...

Did the ponzi scheme involve this rio-off space heaters?

[Kolesar]

4. They don't even go to high school

It's like voluntary privation

[mahatmakanejeeves]

10. But they're free.

All you have to do is pay $300 for the mantel. Each one leaves the factory, individually, on a horse-drawn wagon.

Doesn't it?

(sarcasm)

Added: thanks for the heart, anonymous.

[jmowreader]

15. Yeah, and the mantel is worth about fifty bucks

The thing is, you can go to Home Depot and buy the EXACT SAME HEATER in the exact same mantel, but without the magical Amish craftsmanship, for $279.

You ever see the picture of the Amish factory where they make those mantels? It's got three loading docks, conveyors, obvious semi trailers backed up to the docks...the Amish live disconnected from the grid, but there is NO prohibition whatsoever on buying a nice fat diesel generator to run the factory full of power tools you know they've got to make all those fucking "free electric heaters."

And on that note...what the hell are the Amish doing making ELECTRIC heaters?

[RedCloud]

5. Wait til they crack down on those furniture store time travels!

They take last centuries style furniture, sell it this century at next century's prices.

[Moonwalk]

6. What were they going to spend the money on? What was he going to spend the money on?

:crazy:

[jberryhill]

9. Land, for one

There is a significant amount of collective wealth among the Amish.

[tpsbmam]

7. Look at the community response -- very un-Madoff like:

from WaPo:

Members of the Amish community have responded by making charitable contributions for victims, and the Tennessee widow, who said she had invested $4,327.80 with Beachy, expressed thanks for a gift that was " greatly needed."

In another handwritten note, an investor from Baltic, Ohio, told the creditors' group to use any money left in his account "for the people who need it desperately."

And the community is beseeching the powers that be to drop all of the federal actions & let them keep it in their community, which is according to their religious beliefs:

Much of the sour taste in Sugarcreek over the scandal has resulted because Beachy took the matter to bankruptcy court, contrary to religious precepts, instead of resolving it within the community.

In piles of form letters, investors have asked the court to let them address Beachy's debts in their own way because "participation as a creditor is abhorrent to deeply held spiritual principles."

[AlbertCat]

13. "participation as a creditor is abhorrent to deeply held spiritual principles."

See... ridiculous. Being an investor in the "outside" world isn't abhorrent to their spirit. But dealing with things the way the "outside" world does....

They can deal with the legal system of the country they live in just like everybody else who lives here.

[tpsbmam]

14. ITA.

I do like the community stepping up to help the people who've lost through this scheme, but yeah, the rest is bullshit.

[Kali]

8. I thought it was going to be those stupid heaters.

:rofl:

[mahatmakanejeeves]

11. Cutting edge Amish technology.

All quite hush-hush.

Added: thanks for heart, anonymous.