Jeffery Tuggle, of Lynchburg, Virginia, promised investors returns of between 30 and 40 percent. That in itself should have been a warning to investors. But it apparently wasn’t. Supposedly the money came from paying attorney’s clients their settlement monies early; the interest would be paid by the attorneys when they received their actual settlements.
Mr. Tuggle pleaded guilty last week to two counts of tax fraud, and an additional count each of wire fraud and failing to file a tax return. He’ll be spending some time in ClubFed and will probably owe a fine (which it’s unlikely he can pay).
United States Attorney Julia Dudley noted, “Mr. Tuggle used trust and the promise of high returns to steal money from hard-working, innocent people. He did all this so he could gamble. He gambled away the savings of his victims. He gambled away their futures and the futures of their children.”
One of my favorite sayings is that if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. Mr. Tuggle’s “Advanced Fee Investment Opportunity” was really a Ponzi scheme. Somehow 19 very gullible individuals lost over $400,000. If you are offered such a wonderful investment opportunity, run, don’t walk, in the other direction.