Money, property investments allegedly scam churches
by Ed Thomas
February 21, 2007
(OneNewsNow.com) - - A federal racketeering lawsuit has been filed in U.S. district court in California by two investors who claim to have lost more than half a million dollars in an alleged real estate and currency exchange scheme. The apparent scam involves more than 700 victims in California, Arizona, Texas, Washington, Oregon, Arkansas and several military installations -- with churches, healthcare professionals, and U.S. military service personnel among the alleged victims.A lawsuit filed on their behalf under the federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, alleges that a group of investors and their companies, including named defendant Richard Duncan of Pacific Wealth Management, were scamming churches in several states across the U.S. The scheme involved a purported profit-making opportunity that would supposedly return money on investment in the Iraqi currency, the dinar.
Each of the investors reportedly participated in either a real estate investment opportunity involving fraudulent procedures or a financial investment involving a promised exchange of Iraqi dinars that never occurred. These schemes were allegedly initiated by Pacific Wealth Management LLC and three other investment companies.
According to California attorney Richard Ackerman of the law firm of Ackerman, Cowles & Lindsley, his clients were just two out of the hundreds of investors duped in the alleged scam. He says the women, Anna Richter and Deborah Weber, claim to have lost in excess of $500,000 in what was presented to them as a profit-making opportunity.
Reportedly, in addition to the currency exchange scheme involving Iraqi dinars, investment company officials offered a real estate investment opportunity into which many Christians poured their savings and home equity in the hopes that the returns would help fund church ministries and outreaches. However, Ackerman observes, after the operators of the alleged scheme "took in what appears to be somewhere between 400 and 800 victims in at least four or five different states, obviously no money ended up going to any ministries."
Meanwhile, Ackerman contends, the "bad guys" essentially destroyed two congregations. "And, from what we understand," he adds, they "were working on a third, allegedly.
"They, without a commodities license, were selling people on the idea that they could invest in Iraqi dinars; and what they were telling these various church members was that, for an investment of anywhere from ten [thousand dollars] to $30,000, they could purchase millions of dollars in Iraqi dinars," the lawyer explains, "and that, once the war situation settled down a little bit, these people would have as much as 35 times the profit."
The Christian investors hoped to use the returns on their investment for church programs and ministries -- ideas the investment groups encouraged, Ackerman asserts. But instead of realizing a return, he notes, many of these unsuspecting individuals lost all the financial resources they poured into the scheme.
The lawsuit filed on behalf of Ackerman's clients points out that none of the defendants appear to be licensed to offer securities or currency exchange services. It also argues that the defendants' activities have damaged the Iraqi dinar, the U.S. real estate market, and the creditworthiness of hundreds of ruined investors, including U.S. armed services members, who may face official consequences for indebtedness.
Ackerman says the lawsuit will ask the federal court to shut down the defendants' operations completely in the coming weeks.
