Something interesting from my neck of the woods

Texas indictment charges Phipps with defrauding investors

A former Tarrant County businessman seeking to launch an independent candidacy for Alabama governor has been charged with defrauding investors of about $21 million in an "elaborate Ponzi investment scheme" in Texas.

The former Arlington resident, James Ray Phipps, whose listed address is in Alexandria, Ala., was arrested this week in Anniston. According to Rep. Demetrius Newton, who represented Phipps in the bond hearing Thursday said that Phipps will not fight extradition to Texas and U.S. marshals will take him back to Texas within 2-3 days.

The indictment, issued by a federal grand jury in Fort Worth, Texas, charges Phipps with running a Ponzi scheme entitled "Life Without Debt" from an office in Colleyville, Texas, from June 1996 through August, 2001. Phipps is charged in a federal indictment with three counts of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud, 13 counts of money laundering, one count of corruptly endeavoring to obstruct and impede Internal Revenue Service laws and three counts of income tax evasion. If convicted of all counts, Phipps would face a sentence that would include hundreds of years in prison and millions of dollars in fines.

Members in the "Life Without Debt" were encouraged to invest between $2,000 and $100,000, and were required to bring in two new participants within 90 days of their enrollment.

posted by steve_o @ 4/25/2006 06:37:00 AM