well South Florida is the Nutri Ponzi
schemes who can forget Scott Rothstein
investigative reporter Bob Norman broke
that story and now tonight he's digging
into an alleged fraud that may be even
bigger
it's called woodbridge and while
Rothstein targeted the very rich this
scheme allegedly targeted the most
vulnerable the nest eggs of some of the
most vulnerable among us
here's Bob's report we were sold that
the risk ratio was extremely low he
doesn't want you to know his name but he
does want you to know how he lost his
life savings I thought it was very
conservative and it obviously backfired
on me at 70 he was swept up in what the
feds allege was a massive Ponzi scheme
according to the SEC it started with a
company called the Woodbridge group
which sold so-called first position
commercial mortgage notes allegedly
backed by equity and offering modest 5%
returns he invested his entire $300,000
nest egg that's a crushing Oh the feds
say Woodbridge owner Robert Shapiro of
California lived the high life on the
scheme it just went to his joke
companies all my savings according to
the SEC the Ponzi scheme began right
here in this nondescript building in
Boca Raton and wound up raising 1.2
billion dollars from 8400 victims though
the SEC has filed civil charges and
Woodbridge is in a massive bankruptcy
the office was still occupied you're
running a Ponzi scheme out of this
office now I know nothing little did
they know that he was simply taking
their money and turning it into assets
in his own name attorney Scott silver
said the foot soldiers in the scheme
were unlicensed brokers like Fort
Lauderdale's Andrew Kosta whom
regulators barred from the market back
in 2008 when he refused to turn over
documents related to another
investigation
nobody's overseeing his actions yet
Kosta was able to sell the Woodbridge
investments because they were never
registered as securities my name is Bob
Norman I found cost at his lavish Las
Olas home I'm doing a story about wood
I don't want you to it's a Ponzi scheme
did you sell those securities you're not
allowed on my property ari did you rip
off retirees no just leave it was
another BART broker with a checkered
past Barry Kornfeld and his wife fern
who sold our victim on the idea the
cornfields worked out of this Boca Raton
office advertising in the newspaper and
renting space at Florida Atlantic
University where they taught retirement
courses he did not tell his prospective
investors that he was not a licensed
representative to do this we have many
people jumping in with two feet on the
internet fern Cornfeld touted the safety
of the type of investments Woodbridge
offered they have been exceptionally
well received especially by our seniors
who've been looking for reliable
predictable monthly income of course you
can start with just $25,000 $30,000 on a
visit to the Cornfeld office I spotted
fern there's a lot of people out there
saying the you all targeted retirees
specifically to rip them off absolutely
not we'd like to help you out but I
can't comment there's a lot of people
that wish that you would help them out
by giving their money back
back again but how could you not know
that this was a Ponzi scheme
sorry guys are you licensed I don't need
to be licensed to do this she may claim
they weren't selling securities but
after I spoke with her and after years
of inaction the state of Florida hid her
her husband and Kosta with civil charges
of selling unregistered securities did
you do any due diligence on liberation
no comment again they were told in black
and white and repeatedly you cannot lose
your money don't trust anybody the sad
lesson yeah it's absolutely awful in
Boca Raton Bob Norman local 10 News and
Bob tells us the victims hope to at
least get some of their money back
through assets remaining in the
Woodbridge bankruptcy an FAU spokeswoman
told Bob the University simply rented
space to the corn fields and they were
never hired by the university no answer
from fa you as to whether the couple was
vetted