Another Ponzi scheme [View all]

[sense]

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2016/03/fast_times_on_kruse_way_aequit.html

Aequitas' wild ride came to a sudden halt Thursday when the the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shut the company down and accused three senior executives of systematically deceiving some 1,500 investors and running what amounted to a $350 million Ponzi scheme.

SEC: Aequitas played accounting tricks to mislead investors
About 75 percent of the new investor money contributed in 2014 went to corporate expenses rather than investments. The figure rose to 85 percent in 2015, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claims.
The company, run by the same top executives team for more than two decades and guided by an advisory board of business and political big shots, has become one of the darkest financial scandals in a generation. Jesenik and his senior partner, Brian Oliver, talked a lot about the "Aequitas Way," a manner of behaving in business guided by their evangelical Christian beliefs. But today a different "Aequitas Way" has surfaced marked by out-of-control spending, subprime loans to the poor and alleged fraud.