$138M??

[sojourner]

Heller arrested:

https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/ ... %20Reading

(Shouldn't be paywalled)

Sure is pay walled. However read a lengthy article a few days ago somewhere else that detailed his arrest. Never heard of the man before but looks like he was running a typical Ponzi scheme. I’m sure that’s fun while it lasts. Nobody seems to have figured out how to make it work…

[ken_sylvania]

Heller arrested:

https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/ ... %20Reading

(Shouldn't be paywalled)

https://archive.ph/ZEx4x

[Ken]

Heller arrested:

https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/ ... %20Reading

(Shouldn't be paywalled)

Sure is pay walled. However read a lengthy article a few days ago somewhere else that detailed his arrest. Never heard of the man before but looks like he was running a typical Ponzi scheme. I’m sure that’s fun while it lasts. Nobody seems to have figured out how to make it work…

There is no way to make a Ponzi scheme work. It is by definition fraud or theft and just a sophisticated way to cheat people.

Essentially what he was doing was taking investors money and instead of investing it in new ATM machines like he was claiming to do, he was using the new investor money to pay previous investors and fund his lavish lifestyle. That is fraud. Apparently a large number of the ATM machines his company claimed to own never existed.

I’m not some big sophisticated investor. But this is one of the reasons why I would never invest in this sort of private company. At least when you buy into established public companies on the stock exchange you know they are being independently audited and have lots of regulatory oversight. That doesn’t mean they still can’t perpetrate fraud. Witness Enron or more recently Theranos. Which is why investing broadly in the market through index funds is safer than putting all your eggs in just a couple of baskets.

He was also running an affinity scam and basically playing on his religious affiliation to attract investors. Which is something people in my own extended family have been victims of in various instances over the years. Using religious affinity to attract and scam people is one of the oldest cons in the book and the plain world isn’t immune from it. In fact, maybe more susceptible.

[Ken]

There is no doubt that Heller probably deserves some sort of charges. However, Lancaster Online always irritates me when they bring up a person's past church affiliations, if they are or were Mennonite or Amish. Daryl Heller hasn't been a Mennonite for at least 35 years. They never bring up a person's past church affiliations for other people who break the law.

All their stuff is paywalled. But the Lancaster Online article that Mike reposted above makes no mention of religious affiliation.

Neither does the SEC indictment released this past Wednesday: https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigat ... s/lr-26387

The Reuters article on his arrest doesn’t mention his religious affiliation, but does mention that many of investors that he defrauded were from the Lancaster area Mennonite and Amish communities: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-cha ... 025-09-03/ It does seem newsworthy that he seems to have preyed on that particular community with this affinity scam.

[Grace]

There is no doubt that Heller probably deserves some sort of charges. However, Lancaster Online always irritates me when they bring up a person's past church affiliations, if they are or were Mennonite or Amish. Daryl Heller hasn't been a Mennonite for at least 35 years. They never bring up a person's past church affiliations for other people who break the law.

All their stuff is paywalled. But the Lancaster Online article that Mike reposted above makes no mention of religious affiliation.

Neither does the SEC indictment released this past Wednesday: https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigat ... s/lr-26387

The Reuters article on his arrest doesn’t mention his religious affiliation, but does mention that many of investors that he defrauded were from the Lancaster area Mennonite and Amish communities: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-cha ... 025-09-03/ It does seem newsworthy that he seems to have preyed on that particular community with this affinity scam.

The Latest news on Daryl Heller, announcing he has been arrested, the link posted by Steve says this:

The filing of federal charges caps a stunning fall from grace for Heller, 55, a Lancaster County native who grew up in a conservative Mennonite family where his father was the pastor of the church that had also been led by his grandfather.

Daryl Heller's parents and grandparents, nor their church affiliation has anything to do with the choices he made.

[Ken]

The Latest news on Daryl Heller, announcing he has been arrested, the link posted by Steve says this:

The filing of federal charges caps a stunning fall from grace for Heller, 55, a Lancaster County native who grew up in a conservative Mennonite family where his father was the pastor of the church that had also been led by his grandfather.

Daryl Heller's parents and grandparents, nor their church affiliation has anything to do with the choices he made.

If that is the only context then yeah, seems a little gratuitous.

But if his Menno past and connections were part of his affinity scam and he targeted his fraud at the conservative Menno community (as seems to have been the case) then it would be a legitimate part of the news story.

[Grace]

The Latest news on Daryl Heller, announcing he has been arrested, the link posted by Steve says this:

The filing of federal charges caps a stunning fall from grace for Heller, 55, a Lancaster County native who grew up in a conservative Mennonite family where his father was the pastor of the church that had also been led by his grandfather.

Daryl Heller's parents and grandparents, nor their church affiliation has anything to do with the choices he made.

If that is the only context then yeah, seems a little gratuitous.

But if his Menno past and connections were part of his affinity scam and he targeted his fraud at the conservative Menno community (as seems to have been the case) then it would be a legitimate part of the news story.

Except that Lancaster Online does this all the time and is very consistent in mentioning people's church affiliations when it is Amish or Mennonite. They will have headlines like "Amish boy drowns in farm pond" or "Mennonite foster father beats child", etc. They never mention the church affiliation of people when they are Catholic, Jewish, Muslin, etc.

[Ken]

The Latest news on Daryl Heller, announcing he has been arrested, the link posted by Steve says this:



Daryl Heller's parents and grandparents, nor their church affiliation has anything to do with the choices he made.

If that is the only context then yeah, seems a little gratuitous.

But if his Menno past and connections were part of his affinity scam and he targeted his fraud at the conservative Menno community (as seems to have been the case) then it would be a legitimate part of the news story.

Except that Lancaster Online does this all the time and is very consistent in mentioning people's church affiliations when it is Amish or Mennonite. They will have headlines like "Amish boy drowns in farm pond" or "Mennonite foster father beats child", etc. They never mention the church affiliation of people when they are Catholic, Jewish, Muslin, etc.

If that is the case then that seems a little gratuitous. Write a letter to the editor and call them on it.

[JohnH]

Heller arrested:

https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/ ... %20Reading

(Shouldn't be paywalled)

Sure is pay walled. However read a lengthy article a few days ago somewhere else that detailed his arrest. Never heard of the man before but looks like he was running a typical Ponzi scheme. I’m sure that’s fun while it lasts. Nobody seems to have figured out how to make it work…

There is no way to make a Ponzi scheme work. It is by definition fraud or theft and just a sophisticated way to cheat people.

Essentially what he was doing was taking investors money and instead of investing it in new ATM machines like he was claiming to do, he was using the new investor money to pay previous investors and fund his lavish lifestyle. That is fraud. Apparently a large number of the ATM machines his company claimed to own never existed.

I’m not some big sophisticated investor. But this is one of the reasons why I would never invest in this sort of private company. At least when you buy into established public companies on the stock exchange you know they are being independently audited and have lots of regulatory oversight. That doesn’t mean they still can’t perpetrate fraud. Witness Enron or more recently Theranos. Which is why investing broadly in the market through index funds is safer than putting all your eggs in just a couple of baskets.

He was also running an affinity scam and basically playing on his religious affiliation to attract investors. Which is something people in my own extended family have been victims of in various instances over the years. Using religious affinity to attract and scam people is one of the oldest cons in the book and the plain world isn’t immune from it. In fact, maybe more susceptible.

The Ponzi scheme of fiat currency seems to have lasted a while. Usually lasts 80 years.

[Ken]

Sure is pay walled. However read a lengthy article a few days ago somewhere else that detailed his arrest. Never heard of the man before but looks like he was running a typical Ponzi scheme. I’m sure that’s fun while it lasts. Nobody seems to have figured out how to make it work…

There is no way to make a Ponzi scheme work. It is by definition fraud or theft and just a sophisticated way to cheat people.

Essentially what he was doing was taking investors money and instead of investing it in new ATM machines like he was claiming to do, he was using the new investor money to pay previous investors and fund his lavish lifestyle. That is fraud. Apparently a large number of the ATM machines his company claimed to own never existed.

I’m not some big sophisticated investor. But this is one of the reasons why I would never invest in this sort of private company. At least when you buy into established public companies on the stock exchange you know they are being independently audited and have lots of regulatory oversight. That doesn’t mean they still can’t perpetrate fraud. Witness Enron or more recently Theranos. Which is why investing broadly in the market through index funds is safer than putting all your eggs in just a couple of baskets.

He was also running an affinity scam and basically playing on his religious affiliation to attract investors. Which is something people in my own extended family have been victims of in various instances over the years. Using religious affinity to attract and scam people is one of the oldest cons in the book and the plain world isn’t immune from it. In fact, maybe more susceptible.

The Ponzi scheme of fiat currency seems to have lasted a while. Usually lasts 80 years.

What, are you a gold bug who wants to return to the gold standard?

Gold doesn’t really have any inherent value either.