Two frauds in the Raleigh-Durham area were among those reported in the Secretary of State’s quarterly newsletter recently.
Walter Ray Reinhardt of Durham was served with 62 felony arrest warrants for securities violations in 2010 for allegedly defrauding 16 victims in Durham County out of more than $1 million.
He is currently in the Durham County Jail under a $4 million bond on 38 felony counts of security fraud, 12 felony counts of common law forgery and 12 felony counts of common law uttering.
Michael Anthony Jenkins of Raleigh was served last August with three felony arrest warrants for securities fraud. Investigators allege that Jenkins told investors he would use their funds to trade commodities futures (E-mini futures) through his company, Harbor Light Asset Management LLC.
Instead he used the funds for his personal use and paid earlier investors with money from later investors in a $1.79 million Ponzi scheme involving 377 victims. Jenkins is in Wake County Jail under $500,000 secured bond.
If investors had checked the Secretary of State website, they might have saved their money because Hedrick’s company was shown to be not in good standing. “We always ask people to check before they invest,” NC Secretary of State Elaine F. Marshall said. “In this case, checking first would have shown a corporation that had been dissolved and that neither the suspect nor his investment offering were registered to be doing this business.”
The FINRA Investor Education Foundation’s new research report, Financial Fraud and Susceptibility, reveals that over 80 percent of respondents have been solicited to participate in potentially fraudulent schemes, and over 40 percent of those surveyed cannot identify any classic red flags of fraud. According to experts, this fraud activity may be costing Americans about $50 billion annually.
It’s a Scam If…
1. If you are asked to pay a fee to collect a prize. it’s a scam.
2. If you are invited to play a foreign-based lottery – or are told you have won such a lottery, it’s a scam. (Foreign lotteries are illegal in the U.S.)
3. If a fraudster gets you emotionally excited (thrill, grief, guilt or anger), you literally cannot access the rational part of your brain.
4. If someone tries, do not give personal details to people attempting to sell you an investment opportunity or “process your winnings.”
5. Make sure the person trying to sell you the investment product is licensed and registered, especially those who are friends or members of an affinity group to which you belong.
6. Fully understand what the company does to earn
the return it is promising. It may be a Ponzi scheme.
7. Never buy coins or other investment opportunities from a telemarketer.
8. Don’t be impressed by a fancy office or elaborate marketing materials. (If you’re bilking people out of millions of dollars, you can afford a glossy facade.)