Receiver Goes After|Ponzi Payments

SALT LAKE CITY (CN) - The court-appointed receiver for a $96 million Ponzi scheme has sued a slew of alleged beneficiaries to try to claw the money back.

R. Wayne Klein, receiver of U.S. Ventures LC, Winsome Investment Trust, and the assets of Robert J. Andres and Robert L. Holloway, filed 11 federal complaints this week.

Klein says about 60 businesses, law firms and others received money from the Ponzi scheme, and he wants it back.

Robert Andres and Robert Holloway ran U.S. Ventures and Winsome Investment Trust as "a classic Ponzi scheme" using new money to pay off old investors and skimming as they went, according to the complaint.

The SEC froze Holloway's and U.S. Ventures' assets in 2007, but Andres allegedly continued to operate Winsome through 2010, raking in an additional $33.7 million.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued the defendants a year ago.

Holloway was arrested in San Diego in December 2011 and charged with wire fraud and filing a false tax return. Andres was arrested in Houston, also in December 2011.

The scheme the men had run since 2005 targeted 425 investors and raked in a combined $96 million, according to court documents.

Here are the seven defendants Klein sued on Tuesday, and the money he wants from them:

Fundacion Guatemalteco Americana, $962,000;

World Investment Strategies $561,400;

Holly's Day in Heaven, $434,700;

Grace Foundation, $211,900;

JKKB Enterprises, $168,300;

The Rabbi Solomon Kluger School, $160,000;

King & King & Jones, $25,000 in legal fees.

Klein sued four more companies on Wednesday:

MME Group Inc., $483,000;

Sacred Site Properties Inc., $363,800;

Aishwariya Enterprises Inc., $206,000;

Southeast Texas Ethanol Management, $69,000.

Neither Holloway nor Andres was licensed to sell securities or registered with the National Futures Association during "their massive Ponzi scheme," the complaint states.

"U.S. Ventures claimed to be engaged in the trading of commodity futures in a manner that generated high investment returns for investors, with returns averaging 1 percent per day. U.S. Ventures claimed to have very few days with losses; many investors were told there had been only one day of losses since the inception of trading," according to the complaint.

Klein wants all the money back all the defendants received from U.S. Ventures and Winsome.

He is represented by David Castleberry with Manning Curtis Bradshaw & Bedar.

The CFTC also is seeking disgorgement and restitution.

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