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Makings of a Ponzi-demic

By Richard Binder

pspan id=intelliTXT name=intelliTXTProsecutors in Los Angeles announced the arrest of a real estate broker in an alleged Ponzi scheme that cost investors more than $62 million. /spanspan class=articleMilton Retana, a 43-year-old El Salvadoran national living in Newark and owner of /spanspan class=articlea Huntington Park real estate and mortgage lender named Best Diamond Funding/spanspan class=article, was indicted Dec. 12 on seven counts of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud, and one count of making a false statement to federal law enforcement agents.br /br //spanspan class=articleBest Diamond Funding advertised in Spanish-language magazines and on the Internet and held weekly investment seminars at various Los Angeles locations. Retana began soliciting investors in late 2006 to invest with Best Diamond Funding, telling them that their money would be used to buy and sell real estate. /spanspan id=intelliTXT name=intelliTXTIn reality, prosecutors alleged, Best Diamond Funding made only a handful of actual deals between 2006 and last October while the rest of the investments went into Retana#39;s pocket./span/ppRead a href=http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/12/17/Feds_arrest_LA_real_estate_Ponzi_broker/UPI-10861229536012/these/a a href=http://www.labusinessjournal.com/article.asp?aID=639307702.2385501.1721876.8658127.5381632.296amp;aID2=132443stories/a. Also, a href=http://www.forbes.com/financialadvisernetwork/2008/12/17/madoff-ponzi-vader-fan-ii-in_jl_1217soapbox_inl.htmlsee this helpful how-to/a.br /span class=articlebr /br //span/p

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on December 18, 2008 (boomark / email).