|
August 20, 2008 Con Man on Campus?Posted: 06:00 PM ET
You can lose a lot of money in a Ponzi scheme. And the international scheme investigators and plaintiffs say was concocted by a graduate of the University of Miami is no exception. Investigators say investors may have been bilked out of more than $30 million. According to the FBI’s definition, a Ponzi scheme is an investment fraud where the bad guy promises high financial returns that are not available through traditional investments. The scheme generally falls apart when there are not enough new investors to keep the money rolling in. This type of fraud was named after Charles Ponzi of Boston, Mass., who offered his investors a guaranteed 50 percent return on their investment in postal coupons – of course, the scheme fell apart in the end, and the investors lost fortunes. The university says it's aware of the investigation into the alleged scheme, and that "a few current or former employees" invested. “University funds are not involved,” UM spokeswoman Margot Winick told CNN. “The university will cooperate fully with the investigation.” When CNN found out about this alleged Ponzi, we set up an interview with a current university employee who says she lost a substantial amount of money, and who said she would tell us what she knew. Posted by: By Abbie Boudreau |
Recent Posts
Related Links
Categories
|