Kendall County Real Estate Professional Charged with Operating $23 Million Ponzi Scheme

[nitpicker]

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/pr/kendall-county-real-estate-professional-charged-operating-23-million-ponzi-scheme

Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Northern District of Illinois

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, December 21, 2018

Kendall County Real Estate Professional Charged with Operating $23 Million Ponzi Scheme

CHICAGO — A Kendall County real estate professional has been indicted on federal fraud charges for allegedly orchestrating a $23 million Ponzi scheme. MICHELLE LABRA owned and operated Labra Group Realtors LLC, an Aurora-based investment program that used the promise of outsized returns to receive $23 million from at least 25 investors from 2009 to 2015, according to an indictment returned Thursday in U.S. District Court in Chicago. Instead of investing the money, Labra spent approximately $19.6 million to pay earlier investors via Ponzi-type payments, while misappropriating more than $3.3 million for her personal benefit, including expensive jewelry and vacations in Jamaica, Mexico and Guatemala, the indictment states.

The indictment charges Labra, 47, of Yorkville, with three counts of wire fraud and one count of making a false statement to the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. Arraignment in federal court in Chicago has not yet been scheduled.
(snip)

According to the indictment, Labra claimed that investor funds would be used to make short-term, high-interest loans to borrowers, and that the loans would be secured by the borrowers’ residences. Labra represented that investors would receive full repayment of the principal loan amount, a service fee paid by the borrower, and at least 14% interest on the loan, the indictment states. In reality, Labra never entered into any agreements with borrowers.

Labra attempted to conceal the scheme by making false representations to investors about the reasons why she could not return their money or send them their purported gains. At one point Labra falsely claimed that IRS agents had issued levies and seized investor funds from the Labra Group’s bank accounts, the indictment states. In reality, the IRS had not seized any funds or issued any such levies.

[rampartc]

1. that is why the build federal prisons

please, before "investing" in a scheme like this consider who you are dealing with, and do not get too greedy.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Following in Don the Con's footsteps to wealth.