Mortgage-backed Ponzi

[Cathulhu]

Beats me how I missed this one until now:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/b ... ian10.html

bottom line for promoter: 18 years.

[Thule]

Drive by spam in three, two...

(edit; OK, this post looks a bit weird with the spampost gone)

[Kestrel]

We've seen it before, we'll see it again. Berg is just another idiot fraudster who couldn't keep his fingers out of the cookie jar. He was unsatisfied with the golden eggs the goose laid, so he killed the goose too. And with it he stole the dreams and life's savings of innocent people.

What really rubs me the wrong way is Berg's sentencing statement.

Berg, 49, addressed the courtroom audience of investors and his family in a five-minute monologue that was both contrite and defensive, occasionally smiling and occasionally choking up as he acknowledged "the horrific mess that I've made."

[snip]

"Did I run a 10-year Ponzi scheme and defraud you for 10 years, or did I run a legitimate business and then defraud you?" he asked, declaring that it was the latter.

As if that makes a difference to the financially devastated victims...