Targeting Christian Investors
Man Accused of Targeting Christians in $25M Nationwide Ponzi Scheme
Original Post Date: 3rd May, 2008 - 3:01am
What a jerk, I hope justice is served because no one should be allowed to play on people's good will.
SANTA ANA, Calif. — Federal investigators arrested a man Friday on a charge of wire fraud and alleged he ran a Ponzi scheme that netted more than $25 million by targeting Christian investors nationwide. Jon G. Ervin, 61, of Mission Viejo, was named Thursday in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana. A federal magistrate set bail at $1 million during a brief court appearance Friday and Ervin was not immediately released. Ervin's public defender, Leon Peterson, didn't immediately return a call for comment. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission also filed lawsuits against Ervin and his company, Safevest LLC, on Thursday and obtained federal orders freezing their assets. According to the criminal complaint, Ervin used Safevest to persuade victims to invest in a fake commodity futures trading program. Investors were told Safevest would use no more than 13 percent of their deposit in hundreds of commodity trades a day on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, with a guarantee of up to 1 percent in returns each day. Investors could check their returns on a password-protected Web site that was run exclusively by Ervin. The program attracted about 550 investors, officials said.
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