- 9 - petitioners and advised Ms. Mohr to make similar investments. Petitioners and Ms. Mohr invested in Cash-4-Titles, an investment scheme promoted and operated by individuals and business entities in the United States, the Bahamas, and the Cayman Islands.8 Cash-4-Titles was in fact a massive illegitimate “Ponzi scheme” later shut down by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC),9 and investigated as part of the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) Offshore Credit Card project.10 Mr. Wright was apparently 7(...continued) similar to a debit card. The funds petitioners deposited in their Leadenhall bank account were used to pay for the charges they incurred on their Mastercard credit card. 8The operation of Cash-4-Titles is explained in Ex parte Dill, Dill, Carr, Stonbraker & Hutchings, P.C., 866 So. 2d 519, 522 (Ala. 2003), as follows: “‘ Messrs Homas and Gause raised money from investors * * * that was to be loaned to C4T, which in turn would finance the Cash 4 Titles’ stores to make car loans to the general public.’ * * * ‘Messrs Homa and Gause agreed to pay investors between 1% and 4% per month on funds loaned to C4T and remit the interest payments to investors on a monthly basis.’” In fact, “‘most, if not all of the investor funds were not used by C4T * * * for the car title loan business. Instead, C4T * * * transferred the funds to accounts at the Bank of Bermuda in the Cayman Islands controlled by Messrs Homa and Gause and used the funds, in classic Ponzi scheme fashion, to pay interest to investors and pay personal expenses for Messrs Homa and Gause to support their lavish lifestyle.’” Id. at 524. 9See SEC v. Homa, 2004 WL 1474580 (N.D. Ill. 2004); SEC v. Homa, 2004 WL 1093492 (N.D. Ill. 2004). 10On brief and at trial, petitioners object pursuant to Fed. R. Evid. 408 to the Court’s consideration of testimony by Internal Revenue Agent Robert Sullivan (Mr. Sullivan) about an alleged “deal” Mr. Wright attempted to make with Mr. Sullivan during the examination process. The Court need not consider the objection further because Mr. Sullivan’s testimony would not (continued...)Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Next
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