Must be Ponzi season

[Demosthenes]

Alpine man accused of investment scam
Rick Koerber » Indictment says $100 million collected to buy for real estate, but never made a profit
By Pamela Manson
The Salt Lake Tribune

Updated: 05/26/2009 12:27:51 PM MDT

A 36-year-old Alpine man was indicted Tuesday on fraud and tax-evasion charges in an alleged scam that collected more than $100 million from companies and individual investors.

The federal indictment claims that Claud R. Koerber, who also goes by Rick Koerber, held seminars beginning in 2004 and told potential investors they could make substantial amounts of money through a program named the Equity Mill. The investments allegedly were to be used by Founders Capital to make loans to its associated entities -- including Hill Erickson LLC and New Castle Holdings LLC -- so they could buy real estate.

Koerber generally paid 5 percent a month in interest to Founders Capital's first-line investors, the indictment says. Those investors allegedly were encouraged to obtain money from other people and pay 3 percent interest a month to those second-line investors. The second-line investors, in turn, were allegedly encouraged to pay 1 percent a month to third-line investors.

The indictment alleges that Founders Capital and Franklin Squires Investments, another Koerber company, never make a profit. It says Koerber obtained approximately $100 million in investor funds and used more than $50 million to make "Ponzi" payments to keep his scheme going.
Most of the remaining money was not used for real estate purchases, the indictment alleges. Instead, some allegedly was used for Koerber's housing; more than $850,000 was invested in
was loaned to a Koerber associate for a restaurant; and more than $1 million was spent on expensive automobiles.

In addition, more than $5 million was spent making movies, the indictment says.

Koerber is charged with one count each of mail fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion. He will be issued a summons to appear in court, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

[Demosthenes]

Be sure to check out the pre-indictment rant on the defendant's blog, complete with comparisons to the founding fathers, Ayn Rand quotes, and Magna Carta references:

http://www.rickkoerber.com/2009/04/08/r ... -ahead/231

[Doktor Avalanche]

Sovrun junior.

[Brother Dave]

Be sure to check out the pre-indictment rant on the defendant's blog, complete with comparisons to the founding fathers, Ayn Rand quotes, and Magna Carta references:

http://www.rickkoerber.com/2009/04/08/r ... -ahead/231

Not being wise in the ways of whackjob thinking, is there anything of note (in his head, at least) with the way he splits the word capitalist by syllables(cap·i·tal·ist) at the top of the page?