- 4 -
It is a matter of public record that Mr. Blodgett operated
the business as a ponzi scheme. Stoebner v. FTC, 1997 U.S. Dist.
LEXIS 4639 (D. Minn. Apr. 7, 1997).1 There were both civil and
criminal consequences for this behavior. Mr. Blodgett was
charged with and convicted of several counts of fraud, for which
he served a prison sentence from 1993 to 1999. United States v.
Blodgett, 1994 U.S. App. LEXIS 21564 (8th Cir. Aug. 15, 1994).
Petitioner was not charged with criminal wrongdoing. In addition
to the criminal case, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
initiated a civil action (FTC case) against the business and Mr.
Blodgett, alleging deceptive trade practices and seeking
permanent injunctive relief and consumer redress. See 15 U.S.C.
sec. 45(a)(2), 53(b) (1988). In the FTC case, Mr. Blodgett, the
business, and the FTC reached a settlement that was memorialized
in a Final Judgment and Order (consent order) entered by the U.S.
District Court for the District of Minnesota in March 1992. FTC
v. T.G. Morgan, Inc., 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3309 (D. Minn. Mar.
4, 1992). Petitioner signed the consent order as a nonparty
spouse.
1 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
described Mr. Blodgett’s activity as follows: “Blodgett * * *
was in the habit of selling single coins to multiple customers,
greatly overstating the value of such coins, and using coins he
had already sold as collateral to obtain loans for his personal
use.” Hartje v. FTC, 106 F.3d 1406, 1407 (8th Cir. 1997).
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011