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country (such as a bank account, securities account, or other
financial account). In 2001 and 2002, however, petitioners sent
money to Orion via wire transfers to banks and beneficiaries in
St. Kitts, West Indies, and Nevis, West Indies.
Orion purportedly invested in foreign currency trades that
could net returns of 6 percent to 8 percent per month and 60
percent to 200 percent per year. Orion appears to have been, in
part,2 a Ponzi scheme. Many investors, however, successfully
withdrew funds from Orion, which built customer confidence that
Orion’s operations were legitimate and that the returns and gains
Orion reported to customers, including petitioners, were real.
In December 2003, petitioners received a letter from the
U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), dated December 15, 2003,
that indicated that petitioners might have been victims of fraud
associated with Orion. Following receipt of the December 15,
2003, letter from the USPIS, petitioners attempted to recover
funds they had transferred to Orion. During 2004, a newspaper
printed a story about Orion which stated that the founder of
Orion was suspected of misusing money provided to Orion.
Sometime after reading the 2004 newspaper article, petitioners
believed that any money they provided to Orion was lost and that
their interest in Orion was worthless.
2 Some of the money Orion received was invested in currency
trades.
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Last modified: November 10, 2007