American Greed is a television documentary series, that details how unscrupulous criminals deceive investors, into investing millions of dollars. Only problem is that the money invested almost always goes into the bank account, of the criminals whose only investment is in their lifestyle.
The series will be showing previously unaired shows starting Thursday at 10 PM ET on the CNBC Network. Previously aired shows can be found at the CNBC listings at your cable or satellite provider, and can be found, at various hours during the week, with most shows being shown after market hours. It is easy to catch up on shows that may have been missed, by searching for them and recording them as you find them for later viewing. Full episodes can also be seen at CNBC.com.
The show is aptly named, since the show centers on criminals, that offer ridiculously high interest rates, in return for an investor investing thousands or millions of dollars. Ponzi schemes continue to flourish, despite the demise of ruthless criminals like Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford, whose Ponzi schemes ended, with Madoff receiving a 150 year prison sentence, with a 2159 release date, when he would be 220 years old, and Stanford received a 110 year sentence, that would make him 171, upon his release in 2122.
Many of the criminals profiled in the shows were successful businessmen already, but succumbed to the urge to make even more money, even if it meant crossing the line, into criminal activity that could lead to prison if exposed. It all goes back to the age old question, of how much money is enough. It is usually never enough, for a businessman, that wants to live a lavish lifestyle.
The Bob McLean profile on American Greed is a prime example, of a man who went too far, to amass a huge fortune. McLean hob-nobbed with the most influential politicians, while donating money to charities, which included the Country Music Hall of Fame. The episode tells about McLean showing how he kept track of the stock market, by having a ticker in his office. It was later revealed, that he didn’t invest a penny for a five and-a-half year period.
McLean made a sizable donation to Middle Tennessee State University, for a medical school which was named in his honor. However, his name was removed from the building, when it was revealed that he was a crook, that cared only about himself.
His close friend Ray Vanatta was one of the investors bilked out of millions of dollars. These paragraphs from a New York Times article tell about the financial devastation experienced by Vanatta:
Last spring, the scheme began to collapse. Ron Vannatta, who had been in the same fraternity as Mr. McLean and invested $8.5 million, was among the first to realize something was amiss. Mr. Vannatta said he had asked Mr. McLean to send him more than $350,000 to pay his 2006 taxes. But April 15 passed, and no check arrived. Other investors said they, too, stopped getting checks.
Mr. Vannatta and other investors sued, forcing Mr. McLean into involuntary bankruptcy. Three federal agencies raided his offices here.
When accountants pored over Mr. McLean’s books, they found no investments, just a paper trail showing his juggling some $20 million among investors and spending millions more on houses, cars and charitable contributions — even underwriting an independent movie.
“He got away with it for years,” Mr. Vannatta said. “He simply did not have enough new fish putting money in to pay the old fish.”
That same scenario has spelled the end for many Ponzi schemers, who see their world come crashing down. Ponzi schemes will work only as long, as the original investors keep getting their money, while newer investors may or may not get checks from the likes of McLean.
Ponzi schemes would be more successful, if the criminals would not spend money so fast. Instead they spend the money on themselves, then have nothing to pay the investors. Then the evasion tactics start, which include the bank had a problem, so that is why a check wasn’t paid on time.
There were only losers when Bob McLean committed suicide, in September of 2007, in a church parking lot in Shelbyville, Tennessee.
9/11 Survivors Not Exempt From Financial Ruin
This American Greed special show tells about how 9/11 survivors were victims of financial scams:
| 3 | “9/11 Fraud” | September 7, 2011 |
|---|---|---|
| When Jamie Amoroso’s husband, a Port Authority officer, is killed on 9/11 her life is drastically changed. A trusted family friend and broker uses her friendship to create a joint account without Amoroso’s knowledge and forges her signature on wire transfers, stealing more than $248,000 from this young widow. Pennsylvania contractor, Thomas Cousar, defrauds the U.S. government by overcharging $800,000 for work done by his company in rebuilding the Pentagon after the attacks. Conman Patric Henn lies about a life partner lost in the twin towers and receives $68,000 from the American Red Cross. His efforts to collect additional money are thwarted when agencies cannot find any record of his partner’s death or even existence. | ||
This is a complete list of American Greed shows from 2007-2014 and gives a much better range of get rich schemes, that usually mean someone is getting bilked out of their money. One particularly sad episode was when elderly people lost their houses, because of financial wrongdoing.
Anyone with a lot of money to invest should watch this show, before investing a cent, so they will know how wide of a range of crooks there are out there, who only care about themselves and will break laws to get that money.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_Greed_episodes
Nostalgia and Now 