Alleged scheme targeted Haitians, bilked $23M – AP 12/30/08:

A man is accused of bilking thousands of Haitian-Americans of more than $23 million in an investment scheme where he promised to create a “nation of Haitian millionaires.”

George Theodule used his Haitian background to urge Haitian-Americans nationwide to form investment clubs and funnel funds through his Lake Worth, Fla.-based company, Creative Capital, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday.

“This alleged Ponzi scheme preyed upon unsuspecting members of a close-knit community, attempting to take advantage of the trust they had in each other,” said Linda Chatman Thomsen, the SEC’s enforcement director.
[...]
“He pitched himself as a man of God who was going to create a nation of Haitian millionaires,” said Jared Levy, a West Palm Beach attorney who filed a federal class-action lawsuit against Theodule on Friday.
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Theodule, 48, allegedly guaranteed a 100 percent return on all investments within three months. Investors were also promised that Creative Capital’s trading profits were being used to fund startup businesses in Haiti, Sierra Leone and the Haitian community in the U.S, the SEC said.

However, Theodule lost at least $18 million trading stocks and options over the last year and repaid investors with money collected from new investors, according to the SEC complaint.
[...]
“We want to recover all the money that investors gave to this guy,” Levy said.

I’ll keep this brief because I don’t want to risk stepping into the line of fire of Sarabeth’s ponzi jihad. And speaking of said jihad, WTF is Levy talking about? There was $23 million, $18 million of which fell to trading losses. And Levy wants to recover all of it?

Maybe he thinks he’ll line up at the bailout window just like the victims of Bernie Madoff. Unless this “close-knit community” of Haitians contains a significant number of rich white people from Greenwich, CT, Levy better have a different plan in mind.