The Expert Podcast

The end of 2022 has seen a lot of developments with large scale Ponzi schemes and scams and frauds FTX, allegedly being one of them But there's been others too. And as you've seen many times in this channel we've talked about how victims can get back money. From scams even if the principal in the scam took all the money and spent it. And it comes from third parties. This is a great example. Of how that happened Investors get okay. For recovering money from a bank over. a customer's Ponzi scheme And it's exactly what it sounds like. A customer of this bank ran a Ponzi scheme. The bank didn't know anything about it. Right, but because they didn't do a few little details about managing that customer's account properly. They're now maybe on the hook for paying back the victims. Even if the scammer spent all the money or squandered it, the victims can get back money from a third party And that's a lot of times what we do in investigation is find out who are the third parties that might have some. banks accountants attorneys, sales companies advertising companies. And that's how victims get back money when the scammer is either out of money or sometimes can't even be found So let's take a closer look at this one. So in this case, investors. lost 300 millions and upon 300 million in a Ponzi scheme. Perpetrated by A Customer of this bank of a deposit of this bank. The us district judge. Denied the bank's motion. To be excluded from the case. He also certified the case as a class action So everybody now can join together. The investors claim that Umpqua bank aided and abetted the scammers. Well they didn't. Join in and actually do the scam but because they allowed the scammer to open an account and didn't do proper due diligence, the scam. Was enabled or expanded and the bank now has liability. So how did they come to that conclusion Well, the investigation. Found that Umpqua the bank. It's own fraud detection software issued 146 alerts of specific suspicious activity of PFI which is the, the scam company. Records at the Nevada branch clearly laid out the flow of funds. And it showed that it was fraudulent. So the bank even saw this. In advance Now somebody at the bank didn't see it and said I'm going to let this scammer do it They probably didn't. notice it. They probably didn't even, a person didn't have it on their radar screen. So if you're a victim of a fraud or a Ponzi scheme and you're worried that maybe the scammer can't be found because they're overseas or out of the country or if they are not going to have any assets. Keep in mind that third-party liability may be the saving grace Sometimes it's an insurance company that is insuring somebody and that insurance may have. Liability limits that pays off claims of investors. You want to get good legal advice We're not attorneys not giving you, you know official legal, suggestions but. As an investigative agency, we have seen many times where third-party liabilities. Allow for investors to get back funds when the…original scammer or fraudster doesn't have enough funds to go around to pay everybody off third parties like in this case the bank may be the way to get all the investors made whole.