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Post by ukipa on Oct 23, 2013 17:50:05 GMT 4
Investors were told that Bryan T. Zuzga of Coldwater, Mich., controlled the escrow account as Assured Capital's escrow agent and that he was a licensed lawyer, the SEC stated.
According to the SEC, none of the representations was true; the investment program was purely fictional. Zuzga was not the company's escrow agent and has never been a licensed lawyer. Hoffman and Boschert used some of the investors' money to make payments to previous investors expecting promised returns — the classic definition of a Ponzi scheme — and stole some for personal use.
Assured Capital has since gone out of business.
"Hoffman and Boschert ensnared investors with an arsenal of lies and bogus documents, and Zuzga pretended to be the trusted lawyer to add a false sense of credibility to their scheme," said Eric I. Bustillo, director of the SEC's Miami Regional Office. "What was pitched to investors as a lucrative, successful, and safe investment opportunity turned out to be nothing more than a textbook prime bank and Ponzi scheme."
The SEC's complaint was filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
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