More on the Agape World Ponzi Scheme
January 27, 2009
A Long Island, New York businessman was arrested for perpetrating a $380 million Ponzi scheme. I did some research, and came across some interesting information. People were on message boards asking about Agape World. Here was one (unedited) post:
Has anyone invested with Agape World Inc? They provide bridge loans, and offer investors 13-14% returns.?
When my brother was telling me about it, it sounded kinda fishy and risky.
What also turned me off is that the guy who told my brother about it told him that he's made
1mil just investing. He also mentioned that he gets a percentage out of people he signs up.
Sounds like a pyramid or mlm, scheme whatever you want to call it.
Can anyone provide any info on this company. I've done searches on the web and can't find anything.
The only info I've found has been in yahoo answers and those posts could've been posted by someone from
Agape.
As is the case with most Ponzi schemes, investors let their greed get the best of them. If you read the responses to the post, however, you'll note that people in the Internet were telling the poster to stay away from Agape. This is further proof that freedom of information, rather than the SEC, is the best defense against scammers.
Interestingly, people were shilling for Agape World on online message boards. Here was a post from another message board:
I know the guy Brad who is one of the fund managers. They are very good but picky. They only fund 50-55 deals a year. I work with them on the other side raising money for the bridge loans. They they like your deal it will fund! They are the real deal!
That poster was, of course, attacked by skeptical posters. I wonder, though, whether that poster was an overly enthusiastic victim, or a co-conspirator? I hope authorities, unlike Agape's investors, do their due diligence. This means researching message boards for clues into the scope of Agape. Start issuing subpoenas to determine who said what about Agape - and when.