Her husband ran one of the biggest ponzi scams ever and she helped him hide the money! And this
couple went on the run after they were discovered scamming over THIRTY million dollars from their
customers! Let’s get right to it! 4 - Bullion Run
Bernard Ross Hansen, former President and CEO of Northwest Territorial Mint,
a now-bankrupt company dealing in precious metals, and his girlfriend Diane Renee Erdmann scammed
3,000 customers of over $30 million. Couples share time, love, and affection, but this couple shares
one extra sentiment. Scamming! Only Scams
Bernard’s company dealt in manufacturing medallions and other awards, as well
as a bullion business that involved selling, buying, exchanging, storing, and leasing gold,
silver, and other precious metals. Bernard and Diane defrauded their customers in different ways.
They lied about shipping times for bullion. They used their customers’ money to expand
their business to different states and take care of their personal expenses. Like a Ponzi scheme,
their lies and customers kept building up, and the company kept sinking under
the weight of unfulfilled orders. The couple used new customer money
to pay off older customers and tried to keep everyone happy while making sure their pockets
were heavily lined with cash. Of the almost 3,000 customers they had, 2,500 of them paid for
orders or made bullion sales or exchanges that were either never fulfilled or never refunded.
Bernard and Diane made over $25 million from this. Bernard and Diane also ran a storage business.
Customers would pay the couple thousands of dollars to store their precious metals securely,
and they would siphon the assets for their personal use. In 2016, investigators took
inventory of the company’s vaults and found nearly $5 million worth of precious metals
belonging to over 50 customers was missing. Rather than keep customers’ assets safe,
Bernard turned the vault into a company piggy bank. He used the storage as his own, sometimes
going as far as melting down customers’ property to make something else and ship it off to another
client. In 2016, the company declared bankruptcy. The victims of this elaborate Ponzi scheme weren’t
wealthy multimillionaires. They were ordinary people with plans and dreams, people who looked
forward to their retirement, who set up college funds for their kids, and who inherited a modest
amount of wealth from their relatives. The scam took everything from these people and left them
with no option but to work harder, longer, and in deep stress to get their lives back on track.
Aftermath After two days of deliberation,
the jury convicted Bernard of 14 federal felony counts of mail and wire fraud. Each
charge carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison. The panel also convicted Diane,
who doubled as Bernard’s “vault manager,” of 13 felony counts. They were sentenced to
11 years and 5 years in prison, respectively. Just before their sentencing date, the couple
attempted to flee. They were on the run for 11 days before the FBI caught them in Port Hadlock,
Washington. When police found them, they had three loaded guns behind the car’s driver’s seat.
Because they attempted to escape justice, the prosecutors increased the requested
prison sentences for the couple. They also had to pay over $60 million in restitution.
3 - Singh Singh
For over 6 years, Chander Singh and four Century 21 All Stars 100 employees scammed their clients
through investments that promised double-digit returns. Interestingly, these so-called employees
also happen to be his parents, brother, and a close family friend who coincidentally bears
the same surname Singh. Family Business
Chander Singh is a lawyer from Emerson who owns a “distressed” North Jersey real estate
investment firm called SC Capital Investors LLC. He conspired with his parents Sooruh Paul
Singh and Savitree Joyce Singh, his brother Subhas Brian Singh, and their family friend,
Chandikra Basil Singh, all of whom work as real estate agents. Chandikra was a licensed
real estate agent and the director of the Eastern Bergen Board of Realtors, a panel that oversees
ethical complaints related to real estate. Since at least 2014, the five of them used
Chander’s company to gain access to people and convince them to invest in his Ponzi scheme by
promising them astronomical returns. Their scheme went well until disgruntled investors started
reporting them to the police for owing them money from various related real estate deals.
After duping investors, Chander would attempt to cover his tracks by running the money through a
network of banks. He often made deposits of less than $10,000 to avoid cash transaction reports. On
November 10, 2020, the five of them were arrested and remanded at the Bergen County Jail pending
their court appearances. Fled
In January 2020, Chander left New Jersey and fled to his relatives in Trinidad and Guyana,
and even made inquiries about becoming an attorney in the West Indies while leaving
his New Jersey investors with no clue about where their money was. He appeared to be on the road
to starting a new life in South America. The investors would later complain that
Chander was funneling money in and out of his attorney trust fund without paying his debts.
Chander’s lawyer claimed he didn’t attempt to flee to escape justice but left the country because he
needed to get away for his mental health. Upon investigation, Chander’s family revealed that he
returned home in October 2020 but planned to flee to Guyana in January 2021. But before escaping,
police arrested him at his parents’ house. Court
Chander was charged with money laundering, theft by deception, forgery, and records tampering,
while the entire group was also accused of conspiracy-related offenses. If convicted on all
charges, he faces a maximum of 20 years in prison. 2 - Madoff Juniors
Scott Rothstein ran a Bernie Madoff-style Ponzi scheme for years that earned him $1.2
billion. With this fortune cooling in his account, he would live a lavish lifestyle
featuring politics, luxurious yachts, sports cars, women, and lots of gold.
Scott grew up in a blue-collar community in the Bronx. Despite his humble background, he would
build a successful career as a lawyer specializing in gender discrimination suits, eventually setting
up his law firm, Rothstein Rosenfeldt Alder. In its prime, the firm had over 70 lawyers on
its payroll. Today, it no longer exists. Through his law firm, Scott got access to
potential victims, who he tried to convince to part with their money by selling shares
in fake lawsuit settlements. He promised his investors they would reap the rewards
when the cases were settled and further perpetrated the scam by creating false
bank documents and phony settlement agreements. Scott’s wife, Kim, helped him keep their stolen
money from his investors. As the authorities cracked the whip on her husband’s organization,
she tried to conceal and sell over a million dollars worth of jewelry that investigators wanted
to seize as part of the investigation. When the house of cards they had built came crashing down,
Kim pleaded guilty to conspiracy and received a sentence of 18 months in prison. She filed
a divorce subsequently. Private Elevator
A typical Scott Rothstein scam started from a private elevator disguised as an ordinary door. He
would take the potential victim up to his office, where he would then begin to lay out the plan. He
had secured a lucrative pre-litigation settlement from a client’s former employer, and the client
needed money upfront to foot legal fees. So the investor could purchase the settlement
and reap the rewards when the case is settled. To ensure secrecy, Scott would warn the client
not to disclose the details of the deal because the settling company could get
wind of it and go to court to stop the payments. Scott sometimes went as far as scamming actual
clients that hired his firm to file a lawsuit. Once, when he lost a suit, and his clients had
to pay $500,000 in reparations, he created fraudulent court papers that made his clients
pay $57 million to him. Opulent Lifestyle
Scott lived a life gilded with comfort, of the flashy sort. His wardrobe featured $6,000 suits
and over 200 luxury timepieces. He spent over $1 million on his wedding at the Versace Mansion and
another $3.2 million on a pair of Bugatti sports cars that sat beside other luxurious vehicles in
his vast garage. He had at least four houses and a fleet of boats. Where over-the-top luxury was
concerned, Scott missed no tricks – including his and hers golden toilets in his luxury estates.
Scott also spent about $50,000 to $60,000 monthly on female companionships, paying their rent,
sending them to law school, and financing their international trips. He had an endless
supply of women, including his second wife, Kim. Scott was always thrilled to spend his illegal
wealth in tilting political support towards his direction. He was a major figure in the South
Florida social and political scene, with the hefty contributions he often made to political
causes. He donated $96,000 to Republican Governor Charlie Crist’s campaigning for the US Senate
and dropped another $6,000 for Democrat Alex Sink’s gubernatorial campaign. Outside politics,
Scott donated to charitable organizations and hospitals as well - $800,000 to Joe DiMaggio
Children’s and $1 million to Holy Cross. Find out more about Scott Rothstein’s giant
scam by clicking here! 1 - Grandfathered In
In this $1.5 billion Ponzi scheme, Edwin Fujinaga, president and CEO of Las Vegas-based
MRI International, bilked 10,000 Japanese investors of their life savings. He used the
money to fund his luxurious lifestyle, hopping from yacht to yacht and buying luxury cars.
Edwin didn't run his Ponzi scheme alone. He had help from Junzo Suzuki, MRI's executive
vice president for the Asia Pacific region, and Paul Suzuki, the general manager of its
Japanese operations. In the early years of Edwin’s scheme, Junzo and Paul weren’t aware of what was
happening in the organization. It wasn't until the scheme was on its last legs that they were
brought up to speed. MRI International
Edwin targeted 10,000 Japanese investors in his large-scale fraud. He claimed he
could pay interest by buying U.S. medical debt cheaply and then getting full reimbursement from
insurance companies. These people would part with their money, but Edwin and his co-conspirators
diverted the funds. Some of the clients lost their life savings to MRI International.
In typical Ponzi style, they used some new investments to pay back prior investors.
Edwin spent a chunk of it on luxury cars, private jets, credit card bills, alimony, child support,
a $2.3million Las Vegas golf course mansion, and homes in Hawaii and Beverly Hills, California.
Ill-Gotten Edwin’s wife, June, had
to give up the $2.4 million she received from him while he ran the fraud. The court decided she had
no legitimate claim to the money, whether or not she knew anything about Edwin’s illegal business.
She had earlier tried to hide the money by buying two condominiums at the MGM Grand Towers in Las
Vegas and transferring them to the Yunjo Trust about three weeks after the SEC sued her husband.
She even produced W-2 forms to show that she had earned the money, but she still had to refund it.
Aftermath After just 3 hours of deliberation,
the jury convicted Edwin on 20 counts of fraud and money laundering. The 50-year sentence he
subsequently received will keep him behind bars for the rest of his life. According to
Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro, the heavy sentence was befitting of a criminal who
ran the nation's largest-ever fraud schemes. Junzo and Paul Suzuki also faced wire fraud,
mail fraud, and money laundering charges. After stealing people’s life savings,
Edwin’s excuse was that he had simply lost control of the situation at MRI International. He also had
to pay nearly $1.3 billion in restitution! Click to watch one of these next videos!
Let us know in the comment section which
organized crime is the scariest? The Italian Mob, Russian Mob, or Triads!