Wisconsin Woman Sentenced For Embezzling $421K To Pay For Internet Scam She Fell Prey To

From the Wausau Daily Herald on 1/10/14:

A Merrill woman who stole $421,800 from her employer while she herself was being scammed in an internet scheme was sentenced in federal court Friday to one year and one day in prison and ordered to pay back the stolen money.

Lonely and vulnerable after her husband died of brain cancer in 2011, Amy J. Rajek, 37, turned to an internet dating website and began sending money to a con artist posing as a U.S. serviceman deployed in Afghanistan.

Rajek thought she was sending the man money to cover custom fees on packages he was sending home that would purportedly contain gold. The scheme only drained her funds, according to her attorney, Keith Ellison of Wausau.

Rajek, an accountant at G3 Industries in Mosinee, then began embezzling from the firm by forging company checks and using wire transfers to deposit funds in her bank account.

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Read the whole story here.

FINRA Warns Of Online Ponzi Schemes Known As HYIPS

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) warned consumers last week about online Ponzi-type investment fraud schemes known as High Yield Investment Programs or HYIPS that are being marketed through social networking web sites such as Facebook and Twitter. FINRA's investor alert, issued last Thursday, noted that one such fraud had bilked some 40,000 investors in 120 countries out of $70 million. The alert said that many such frauds include classic ponzi warning signs, such as extraordinarily high returns and some are even brazen enough to entice investors to "ride the ponzi" before it collapses.

Read FINRA's alert here.