July 12, 2011
With regards to Investor Education, does it even exist?
I lost my entire net worth, over $2 million from dishonest investment advisor who put all my money into Red D Ponzi Schemes. Since then I have waited almost 2 years for my FINRA arbitration and has cost me almost $200,000 in legal fees so now I am losing my home.
To this day, I have been investigating these 15 or so Reg D offerings to find out where the fraud was. To my surprise most of it lies with those with prior bad acts that were of course not disclosed.
What education does the SEC have to warn the public of the huge amount of fraud and the extreme risk in Reg D offerings?
Additionally, I have found that most of these Ponzi schemes and Reg D offerings were they just outright take your money pay you back alittle over time then close the investment keeping most of your money go on just long enough to get these crooks past the statute of limitations for securities law violations. I have seen it done over and over. Where is the education about this?
The fact remains that Red D offerings are one of the best vehicles to "legally" steal money.
Maybe the SEC should spend some of the education money to educate themselves about the amount of fraud in Reg D offerings?? I have talked to numerous individuals at the SEC and they all have the same attitude, blame the victim. Or how could you have fallen for that?
Education needs to include the fact that just because you have a high net worth doesnt mean you dont deserve protection from the SEC against fraud. Look at the guy in Wisconsin who won the lotto. He went from food stamps to multi-millionare so automatically he is supposed to be able to protect himself against guys who have perfected fraudulent activities??
If the SEC really cares about investor education, then why on the investor pages there is no mention of Reg D offerings or private placements and warnings? I have called your investor department many times to ask this question but have NEVER received a call back.
In closing, before the SEC asks for input on investor education, maybe they should look inward to see who at the SEC actually CARES about investor education.
Thank You For Considering My Thoughts.