FBI probes huge “Ponzi-style” scheme
Thousands in U.S., Canada “financially destroyed”
Grab a cuppa joe and find out what's going on...
January 31, 2010 — The Broward Bulldog has published a revealing article by Dan Christensen concerning the infamous EMI Sun Village Resort and Spa in the Dominican Republic. It’s reminiscent in scope and depth of the ponzi scheme run by Michael Kelly a few years ago in Cancun, MX with his Yucatan Resorts fraud.
Run by Frederick and Derek Elliott, a father and son team of resort developers from Canada, and James B. Catledge, a Nevada-based investment guru whose company, Impact Inc., marketed and sold the property, Sun Village garnered a lot of complaints over the last several years and it looks like their chickens have finally come home to roost.
I will quote a few paragraphs from the article, then you must go read the rest of it on the Bulldog’s website.
Federal prosecutors and FBI agents in South Florida are investigating allegations of yet another massive investment fraud in which thousands of investors across the U.S. and Canada are said to have lost $170 million, Broward Bulldog has learned.
The investigation began last month after a 50-page preliminary report about the “Ponzi-style” scam was sent to a Miami federal judge by a court-appointed special master. The report called for sweeping criminal probes by U.S. and Canadian law enforcement.
“The unassailable fact (is) that thousands of investors/owners, and by extension their families in the U.S. and Canada, as well as other countries, have been financially destroyed,” says the report by Miami lawyer Thomas Scott, a former federal judge and U.S. Attorney.
Investors allegedly sank those now missing millions into timeshare units and other property owned by the EMI Sun Village Resort and Spa in the Dominican Republic. But the money actually went to fund the lavish lifestyle, and gambling debts, of the resort’s developers, court papers say.
“That money has now been almost completely lost”, the report says. “The investors’ plight is tragic. The cause of that plight is criminal.”
Also of interest here is that Frederick Elliott, his son, and 22 affiliated companies are currently defendants in a Miami federal civil racketeering lawsuit, which initiated Thomas Scott’s investigation and subsequent report.
The allegations in this case are likely to be hotly contested by the Elliotts and Catledge and it remains to be seen what will come of it, but I’ll try to keep on top of it for you. They’ve hired some big time lawyers to watch out for their interests.
Read the rest of the article at The Broward Bulldog.
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