7 indicted in elaborate Ponzi scheme
RALEIGH (AP) — Seven people have been indicted in an elaborate Ponzi scheme that federal prosecutors said took about $70 million from people seeking retirement investments.The five men and two women are accused of using false and misleading statements to trick people seeking financially secure retirement investments between 2001 and 2004, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Raleigh.
The scheme promised an annual return of nearly 13½ percent to investors purchasing $20,000 shares in Mobile Billboards of America, a truck-mounted billboard company. Investors, including many from North Carolina, were paid from money received from new investors instead of billboard-advertising revenue, according to court documents.
The indictment, unsealed last week, names Arthur J. Anderson Jr. of Raleigh; Scott Hollenbeck, who lived in Kernersville before moving to Florida; Michael A. Lomas of Pasadena, Calif.; Barry C. Maloney of Bethesda, Md.; Laurinda Holohan of Concord, Ohio; Susan Knight of Eastlake, Ohio; and Michael L. Young, who lives abroad.
Each defendant is charged with one count of conspiracy and 17 counts of mail fraud.
Lomas and Young formed the company, Maloney gave legal advice, and Holohan and Knight handled accounting, according to the indictment. Hollenbeck, who faces an Aug. 6 hearing in Raleigh federal court, and Anderson were salesmen.
Hollenbeck, Young, Holohan, Knight and Anderson couldn't be reached for comment by the Winston-Salem Journal. Maloney declined comment, and Lomas' lawyer said his client was cooperating with investigators.
posted by steve_o @ 6/07/2007 06:40:00 AM
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