{"id":12130,"date":"2010-10-25T04:48:17","date_gmt":"2010-10-25T09:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/?p=12130"},"modified":"2010-10-25T05:59:17","modified_gmt":"2010-10-25T10:59:17","slug":"ibc-sec-halts-web-based-scheme-defrauding-deaf-investors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2010\/10\/25\/ibc-sec-halts-web-based-scheme-defrauding-deaf-investors\/","title":{"rendered":"IBC: SEC Halts Web-Based Scheme Defrauding Deaf Investors"},"content":{"rendered":"

IBC: SEC Halts Web-Based Scheme Defrauding Deaf Investors<\/strong><\/p>\n

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/p>\n

2010-184<\/p>\n

Washington, D.C., Oct. 7, 2010 \u2014 The Securities and Exchange Commission has
\ncharged an Internet-based investment company with securities fraud for
\nsoliciting several million dollars from U.S. investors and promising them
\nguaranteed returns of 1.2 percent per day while in reality siphoning the
\nfunds into foreign bank accounts and not paying a single penny back to
\ninvestors.<\/p>\n

The SEC has obtained an emergency court order freezing the assets of Imperia
\nInvest IBC, which allegedly raised more than $7 million from approximately
\n14,000 investors worldwide. More than half the funds were collected from
\nU.S. investors who are members of the Deaf community. Imperia offered the
\ninvestment opportunity through its website by touting such lucrative
\nexamples as a $50 investment turning into a $134,000 return in six months.
\nImperia’s website stated that investors could only access their profits by
\npurchasing a Visa debit card from Imperia for a few hundred dollars.
\nHowever, Imperia has no relationship with Visa and was using the Visa name
\nwithout authorization. On its website, Imperia has listed fake business
\naddresses in both the Bahamas and Vanuatu.<\/p>\n

“Imperia’s operators took proactive steps to conceal their identity by using
\nan anonymous browser to host its website, communicating with all investors
\nvia e-mail, and taking their payments through off-shore PayPal-style bank
\naccounts,” said Kenneth D. Israel, Director of the SEC’s Salt Lake Regional
\nOffice. “Investors were promised eye-popping amounts of money in return for
\na simple $50 or $100 investment, and Imperia has made numerous excuses on
\nits website about why these returns haven’t been paid.”<\/p>\n

The SEC’s complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Utah on October 6
\nalleges that Imperia is defrauding investors by soliciting funds via the
\nInternet to purchase Traded Endowment Policies (TEP) \u2014 the British term for
\nviatical settlements. A TEP or viatical settlement involves the sale of an
\ninsurance policy by the policy owner before the policy matures, and policies
\nare sold at a discount from face value in an amount greater than the current
\ncash surrender value. Imperia’s website stated that an initial $50
\ninvestment would allow the investor to obtain an $80,000 loan from an
\nunnamed foreign bank that would be used by Imperia to purchase a TEP.
\nImperia would then trade the TEPs and pay the investor a guaranteed return
\nof 1.2 percent per day. While Imperia contends that its experience with
\nfinancial derivatives and bank securities allows it to offer trading in TEPs
\nto the mass market, no TEP purchases or trading appear to be taking place.<\/p>\n

According to the SEC’s complaint, the majority of investor funds were paid
\nto Imperia through three PayPal-type entities located in Costa Rica, Panama,
\nand the British Virgin Islands. Once the funds have been received from
\ninvestors, Imperia apparently funnels these amounts and additional investor
\nfunds to bank accounts located in Cyprus and New Zealand. Meanwhile,
\ninvestors are not receiving any returns. For example, one investor who
\ninvested $150 with Imperia received account statements from Imperia showing
\nhe had earned more than $36 million within a two-year time frame. Another
\nindividual who invested $500 in July 2007 received statements showing his
\naccount was worth nearly $44 million as of May 2010. Meanwhile, Imperia has
\nmade a range of excuses on its website about why investors have not received
\nthe astronomical returns they were promised. It initially claimed it could
\nstart paying investors only when it had at least 10,000 investors \u2014 a number
\nthat already has been significantly exceeded. Then Imperia claimed it
\nexperienced computer server problems during its “relocation” from the
\nBahamas to Vanuatu. Other purported reasons for delays in paying out
\ninvestment proceeds have been the need for additional time to verify the
\nidentities of investors, and compromise of Imperia’s computer system by
\nhackers.<\/p>\n

The emergency court order obtained by the SEC late yesterday on an ex parte
\nbasis freezes Imperia’s assets and, among other things, grants expedited
\ndiscovery and prohibits Imperia from destroying evidence. In addition to the
\nemergency relief for investors, the SEC is seeking an injunction against
\nfuture violations of the antifraud and securities registration provisions of
\nthe federal securities laws, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains with
\nprejudgment interest, and financial penalties.<\/p>\n

This matter was investigated by Jennifer Moore, Scott Frost and Matthew
\nHimes of the SEC’s Salt Lake Regional Office, and the litigation will be led
\nby Daniel Wadley. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the State of Maine
\nOffice of Securities, the Securities Commission of the Bahamas, the Vanuatu
\nFinancial Services Commission, and the Cyprus Securities and Exchange
\nCommission.<\/p>\n

# # #<\/p>\n

For more information about this enforcement action, contact:<\/p>\n

Kenneth D. Israel
\nRegional Director, SEC’s Salt Lake Regional Office
\n(801) 524-5796<\/p>\n

Karen Martinez
\nAssistant Director, SEC’s Salt Lake Regional Office
\n(801) 524-5796<\/p>\n

Source:
\n http:\/\/www.sec.gov\/news\/press\/2010\/2010-184.htm<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IBC: SEC Halts Web-Based Scheme Defrauding Deaf Investors FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2010-184 Washington, D.C., Oct. 7, 2010 \u2014 The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged an Internet-based investment company with securities fraud for soliciting several million dollars from U.S. investors…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[4621,6884,35,3906,6872,6867,24,1308,6878,6877,6879,4291,6876,6869,6881,6880,6871,6873,6883,6868,6870,6866,6875,6882,6874],"class_list":["post-12130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deaf-news","tag-article","tag-british-virgin-islands","tag-community","tag-costa-rica","tag-cyprus","tag-daniel-wadley","tag-deaf","tag-fraud","tag-ibc","tag-imperia","tag-imperia-invest-ibc","tag-investment","tag-investors","tag-jennifer-moore","tag-kenneth-d-israel","tag-lucrative","tag-matthew-himes","tag-new-zealand","tag-panama","tag-salt-lake-regional-office","tag-scott-frost","tag-sec","tag-securities-and-exchange-commission","tag-traded-endowment-policies","tag-u-s-district-court"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p752R-39E","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15770,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2011\/09\/09\/man-charged-with-defrauding-deaf-investors\/","url_meta":{"origin":12130,"position":0},"title":"Man charged with defrauding deaf investors","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"September 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Man charged with defrauding deaf investors September 9, 2011 By William Spain CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed fraud charges against a Texas man in connection with his alleged scheme for bilking deaf investors out of millions of dollars. 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