Greedy Groovy Guru/Doomsday Profit (AmGreed this week) [View all]

This week's episode of the excellent show American Greed on CNBC.

Posting because this episode really "ticked all the (skeptical) boxes," as our British cousins like to say. A wittering New Age crackpot in Florida AND a neo-Confederate survivalist wacko in South Carolina. Both of whom turned themselves into financial geniuses. For a while, anyway.

The episode covered 2 stories (quotes from the American Greed page linked below):

1. Lydia Cladek, New Age evangelist becomes a greedy, groovy, guru telling Florida investors that positive thinking can lead to positive returns in her auto financing business. But this false prophet is returning nothing but false profits in her $113 million scam. She draws in some 2000 victims but when the F.B.I. finds out about Cladek's scam, this greedster doesn't have a prayer.

2. And, civilization is on the verge of collapse, Ronnie Gene Wilson tells his followers, and the only path to a secure future is paved with investment in precious metals. But for a guy who predicts the imminent demise of the dollar, this South Carolinian certainly seems greedy for greenbacks. He takes in $93 million. Over time, investors realize that Wilson isn't investing their money in metal, but using it to build a luxurious doomsday bunker complete with an organic farm.

Wilson got my attention because he was operating in the region where I grew up. Until he went into another sort of bunker recently - a Federal prison - he was very big in local Republican politics. Two-time County Councilman, etc.

One of Wilson's victims was a local TV journalist who invested (and lost) all his life savings.

That's one reason these shows fascinate me. Victims are often people who are, or should be, professional skeptics. Sometimes I watch these sad people and think, "That could be me."

Well, in some cases it could, maybe. In others, not so much. During the show, one victim said they were getting a "modest" profit of 10% a month, IIRC. Jebus on a trailer hitch! I'm severely math-challenged, but even I can see that's far from modest. It would be a return of 120% annually. Anyone able to do that consistently would be hired/killed by Goldman Sachs et. al.

Link to this show - http://www.cnbc.com/id/100816237

Bonus link to the Lexis/Nexis Ponzi Scheme roundup, a useful summary of current fraudsters both American and international:

http://www.lexisnexis.com/community/corpsec/blogs/bank-fin-law-blog/archive/2013/04/02/march-2013-ponzi-scheme-roundup.aspx