“Operation Broken Trust” sounds like “Operation Broken Record” to Me.
The Justice Department today put out a news release boasting enforcement actions against 343 criminal defendants and 189 civil defendants for fraud schemes. Or as I like to say on this blog, ho-hum, another day, another Ponzi.
Justice said these schemes took more than 120,000 victims nationwide for more than $10.4 billion.
All these penny-ante schemers do not add up to even one Bernie Madoff, who was alleged to have stolen several times that amount. Makes you wonder what’s out there that has yet to be brought to Justice.
“The Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force is sending a strong message,” said Attorney General Holder. “To the public: be alert for these frauds, take appropriate measures to protect yourself, and report such schemes to proper authorities when they occur. And to anyone operating or attempting to operate an investment scam: cheating investors out of their earnings and savings is no longer a safe business plan – we will use every tool at our disposal to find you, to stop you, and to bring you to justice.”
Hmm. You mean running a Ponzi scheme used to be “a safe business plan”? Apparently, so. Thanks, Justice, for finally jumping on the case.
December 6, 2010
Great take on this Al. I read it this morning, too, but I didn’t catch the poor wording. Good job.