An alleged $500 million Ponzi scheme preyed on Mormons. It ended with FBI gunfire.

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post with Las Vegas Review Journal

An alleged $500 million Ponzi scheme preyed on Mormons. It ended with FBI gunfire.

In Las Vegas, a lawyer with huge gambling debts is accused of a financial fraud that left hundreds of victims in its wake

By Lizzie Johnson
February 1, 2023 at 9:00 a.m. EST

Las Vegas investigative reporter Jeff German was slain outside his home on Sept. 2; a Clark County official he had investigated is charged in his death. To continue German’s work, The Washington Post teamed up with his newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, to complete one of the stories he’d planned to pursue before his killing. A folder on German’s desk contained court documents he’d started to gather about an alleged Ponzi scheme that left hundreds of victims – many of them Mormon – in its wake. Post reporter Lizzie Johnson began investigating, working with Review-Journal photographer Rachel Aston.

-snip-

The Las Vegas attorney, then 49, had been anticipating this visit for months, he would tell an FBI hostage negotiator. He’d already drafted letters to his wife and four children, explaining what he could and describing how much he loved them.

On this Thursday in March, Beasley knew his time was up. He placed the letters — along with a note addressed to the FBI and a zip drive of computer files — upstairs on the desk in his office. Then, alone in the house, he went to the front door. He paused, the left side of his body obscured by the door frame.

-snip-

Authorities had long suspected Beasley of running a massive Ponzi scheme with his business partner, Jeffrey Judd, that mainly targeted Mormons, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are often called. The investment was pitched as a nearly risk-free opportunity to earn annual returns of 50 percent by lending money to slip-and-fall victims awaiting checks after the settlement of their lawsuits.

There was just one problem, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged in a civil complaint. None of it was real.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/02/01/mormon-ponzi-scheme-vegas-fbi/

Non-paywalled link: https://wapo.st/3WRuHI5

[RockRaven]

1. Affinity frauds seems to particularly get traction amongst Mormons

From the Wikipedia article on affinity fraud:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affinity_fraud

A 2012 article in The Economist reports that Utah is believed to have the highest per-capita rate of affinity fraud in the U.S. due to about two-thirds of the state's residents being members of the LDS Church among whom such crimes tend to flourish. Authorities estimate affinity fraud cost Utahns an estimated $1.4 billion in 2010 alone, an average of about $500 per resident.[7] Salt Lake City attorney Mark Pugsley (who specializes in representing white-collar fraud cases) reports that Utah County is the hotbed of financial fraud in the state, particularly the roughly 25-mile corridor from Alpine through Provo. Pugsely suggests a number of factors explain the high rates of affinity fraud in Utah, including members of the LDS Church (also known as Mormons) tending to be overly trusting of those who are or present themselves as members of the church's leadership and thus failing to conduct standard due diligence for investments.[8] In 2017, a statement from the FBI noted that Utah consistently ranked high in the states with "the most significant white-collar crime cases" and that Utah state legislature established an online registry for convicted fraudsters, hoping to prevent repeat offenses and inform the public.[9]

[tanyev]

2. Annual returns of 50%!!

Why, that sounds too good to be true.

[machoneman]

3. Greed pure Mormon greed! Serves them right!