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Court To Scammer, "Give Up Your House Or Go To Jail"
coondoggie writes "Too many online scammers get away with what amounts to a wrist-slap, but a case if Las Vegas this week seems to be heading the right direction. According to the Federal Trade Commission, a business opportunity scammer has been held in contempt for the second time by a federal court and ordered to turn over the title of his home in Las Vegas or face jail time. The court found that the operator of the scam, Richard Neiswonger, failed to deliver marketable title to his home, in violation of a previous court order entering a $3.2 million judgment against him, the FTC stated. The FTC charged that the defendant deceived consumers with false promises that they could make a six-figure income by selling his 'asset protection services' to those seeking to hide their assets from potential lawsuits or creditors."
Take the house and put him in jail... Actually, Waterboard him too.
I've been getting calls from 202-495-7152 for about a week now, several times a day, and if I ask them to stop calling they hang up. I stayed on the line to see what it's about and it's one of those, "You won a million dollars, send us $10,000 for shipping insurance" scams.
I've reported them to as many people as I can, and no one cares.
So yeah, scamming is a pretty good way to make some extra cash, since no one cares enough to track them down or arrest them until they amass millions.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
If his service actually works, his home in Las Vegas (which is probably underwater anyways) is just the tip of the iceberg, and most of his ill-gotten gains are hiding safely in Jamaica - which is distinctly possible.
Um, how did his claim count as fraud? He made (at least) 3.2 million selling his "program". So surely others could manage the claimed "six figures" doing the same thing, no? Thus, no fraud. His system worked, simple as that.
Granted, the end-product may (or may not - He may have said nothing more complex than "sell everything and bury your cash in the back yard") have violated a law or two, but he didn't actually sell the "asset protection" service, he sold educational material on how to hide assets. And he didn't really even do that, according to the FTC, he sold lessons on how to sell educational material on how to hide assets.
Seriously, how many layers of indirection do you have to toss in before it stops counting as a crime? If I convince you to pay me $20 to tell you where you can find bomb-making instructions, then send you off to the library after you pay up... Have I committed a crime?
The ruling says he's required to deliver marketable title.
That explicitly means he is required to use all resources available to him to pay off any mortgages on the property and have any encumberances by other parties released, or face contempt.
It suggests the court believes he has the resources available, or some liens/encumberances on the property are created by organizations under his control.
IOW, Since he ran an asset-protection business, the court may believe he has intentionally structured ownership of the property in attempt to protect it from the court.
Well, the judge can definitely side against him in extreme cases like this one. Asset protection is okay, until you try and use it as a shield to break the law, at which points, the courts will pwn you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly_(game)#Rules
Sorry but you are not correct.
In fact, landing in jail towards the end is a relatively cheap way to avoid having to pay rent.
It depends on what state you're filing in, as federal bankruptcy law explicitly defers that decision to the states. Here in Texas, you can choose between the federally recommended exemptions (which only allows you to keep $20,200 of equity on your home), or Texas's own set of exemptions (which lets you keep any size house, but only up to 10 acres of land in the city or 100 acres of land in the country, and is more restrictive in other categories than the federal expeditions). I'm sure it varies wildly from state to state.
Sunwalker Dezco for Warchief in 2016