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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."
Can anyone else see the irony in the seller of "asset protection services" to "hide assets from potential lawsuits" failing to hide his assets from potential lawyers?
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
Don't give him a choice, take everything AND put him in jail...
think about it - if his service actually worked, he wouldn't have been prosecuted for running a scam :)
What I tell friends and family and anyone who wants to listen: consider all unsolicited emails as scams. The same for telemarketers - if you're on the DNC list, then those people are breaking the law by calling you which makes them criminals. You don't want to do business with criminals, do you?
Junk mail a lot (too many) of times are crooks too - you know the "checks" that come in the mail for you to deposit and send money via Western Union to others.
Some day, one of these assholes is going to scam the wrong person and they may end up wishing they've gone to jail.
It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
problem. This is contempt of court. He stays in jail until he complies. Contempt of court is the only thing that can legally get you sent to jail indefinitely without a jury trial in the US.
The FTC has an archive of case materials. Looks like a complaint was brought in 1996, and he settled in 1997, which included agreeing to a permanent injunction. The FTC brought another complaint in 2006, got a temporary restraining order, and a finding of contempt of court in 2007. The 2007 filing is the one that instituted a $3.2 million fine and ordered Neiswonger to turn over title to a specific residence in Las Vegas as part of paying it.
It's not clear to me if that's his primary residence or a secondary one. Usually primary residences are shielded from civil judgments. If it's a secondary one, this case isn't unusual at all, since ordering a 2nd home to be sold to pay a judgment is common. If it's a primary one, I'm not sure if the rules are different because it's a contempt proceeding. (In theory it seems the rules might also be different for even primary residences purchased with ill-gotten money, but none of the complaints seem to allege that specifically.)
The FTC also has a slightly more detailed version of this news, fwiw.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Civil contempt means that the person who is locked up holds the keys to the jailhouse doors in his or her own hands. Comply and be freed. Stay defiant and stay locked up. If you don't like it, you can appeal.
Courts wouldn't work without civil contempt sanction.
Contempt of court is the only thing that can legally get you sent to jail indefinitely without a jury trial in the US.
No, in fact, the (former) president of the United States stated that if you are suspected of terrorism, you can be held without charge indefinitely, without access to a lawyer, and without any right to challenge the fact that you were so designated (or even to see any of the evidence used to designate you a terrorist.)
For example, Jose Padilla was a U.S. Citizen, picked up on U.S. territory, and put into solitary confinement without being allowed to see talk to a lawyer and without any charges against him. On September 9, 2005, a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit ruled that President Bush indeed has the authority to detain Padilla without charges, in an opinion written by judge J. Michael Luttig.
So, no, contempt of court is not the only thing that can legally get you sent to jail indefinitely without a jury trial in the US.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
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?