Saturday, December 20, 2008

Reed Slatkin Ponzi Among Largest in History

Reed Slatkin mentioned among "Largest Ponzi schemes in history" by Associated Press:
Reed Slatkin, co-founder of Earthlink Inc. and once a Scientology minister, was sentenced in 2003 to 14 years in prison for swindling investors out of about $240 million over 15 years. Groups affiliated with the Church of Scientology agreed to return millions received from his scheme.
Note however that on the whole page, the "groups affiliated with the Church of Scientology" are the only ones who agreed to return millions received from Slatkin scam.

I don't have the details in all this story but usually most people in a pyramid scam, even relatively high up, are victims rather than perpetrators. Maybe naive or greedy but victim nevertheless. However, I never heard of anyone agreeing to return money gained in such a scheme once it was discovered to be a scam.


Related blog entries: R-Slatkin-

1 comment:

Al Brown said...

They may have agreed to return the money but I think, from what I hear with regard to Madoff, everybody that made any money from scheme has to return it and possibly even part of the principle.