Elder Law

Nursing Home Firm Charged with $300 Million Fraud

By Levin & Perconti

Recent reports show that a national nursing home management firm, Sunwest Management as been accused of defrauding investors out of roughly $300 million in a Ponzi scheme. The Securities and Exchange Commission leveled charges against the company, and its founder. According to the SEC, Sunwest raised $300 million from 1,300 investors between 2006 and 2008. Investors believed that they were purchasing partial ownership of one of the Sunwest?s facilities, and had been guaranteed an annual return of 10%. Sunwest then allegedly placed the money in one fund that it used to pay operating expenses, investor returns and other costs. The investors were never informed that the places they had invested in were actually losing money. While Sunwest Management had overseen more than 320 assisted living facilities in 2007, more than 100 facilities have been foreclosed upon, placed in receivership or declared bankrupt. To read more about the nursing home Ponzi scheme, please click the link.

Full post as published by Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog on March 09, 2009 (boomark / email).