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Stories That Give One Hope
Here is a story of a woman who would not let getting overcharged for flowers on her credit card go. The result? She brought down a Ponzi scheme. Just wow.
But Swanson was never paid back, and it was her tip that brought everything into the open.
Years later, when Akst published a book about the fraud, he described Swanson as the person “who did as much as anyone to destroy (Minkow).”
I loved this bit:
Later, in a 1989 interview with The Los Angeles Times, Morze, the Minkow associate, reflected on how the newspaper article, prompted by Swanson, ruined the KeyServ acquisition an estimated four days before it was going to close.
“If everything had worked out, everyone makes out like a bandit,” he said. “The stockholders make money, the income tax people collect taxes, three or four thousand people get jobs, America gets its carpets cleaned.”
Instead, Minkow was convicted on fraud charges, sentenced to 25 years in prison, and forced to pay back defrauded investors $26m in restitution. The prosecutors used Swanson’s notes as evidence during the trial.
Now, of course, the fraudster only spent six years in prison. Then he came out to be a fraud investigator and pastor.
…only to be convicted of financial crimes, including the defrauding of his church congregation in San Diego, and sentenced to federal prison again in 2014.
Neat read.
Published in General
Yeah. That sort of thing happens often. Leopards and spots.
Because he’s a…sociopath.
Let’s see, $23.95 for the arrangement. That’s about $5 for the vase, 3.95 for the delivery, no FTD charge, that leaves enough for greens, carnations, mums, filler and a couple of nicer flowers. Something like this,
Couldn’t do that for less than $50 today.
Don’t mess with a hard working mom.
They made a whole series about that guy. What amazes me is how little due diligence big investors did. They believed it was profitable because the guy said it was. He is a con man, but others made it easy for him. Pretty cool that the whole thing got toppled by overcharging a credit card. Good for Mrs. Swanson.
It is compulsive. I saw an interview and even his friend seemed to agree that Minkow should never be in a position where he has access to other people’s money. He claims he turned his life around. but it is like a recovered alcoholic, he needs to kept away from temptation.
Nice catch, Bryan.
Stick-to-it-iveness can be very important, although rarely does it have such large fallout.
One of my own “things” is that I always call 911 if I see/hear/whatever a collision out on the streets etc. Many people seem like they don’t bother, because they figure someone else will call. But if everyone does that, then NOBODY calls.
Not very long before I left Phoenix, I heard a loud CRASH! outside. I first called 911, then went out to check. Fire dept. and EMTs arrived quickly, and it turned out there was a little girl who had been in the back seat of one car, who was being checked out because she had a pretty big bump on her head.
Maybe it turned out to not be serious, but when I mentioned that I’d called 911, one of the fire people said there’d only been one call.
I’m glad that I followed my rule.