Ronald Gene Wilson | |
---|---|
Member of the Anderson County Council from District 6 | |
In office 2007–2010 | |
Succeeded by | Ken Waters |
68th Commander-in-Chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans | |
In office 2002–2004 | |
Preceded by | Edwin L. Deason |
Succeeded by | Denne A. Sweeney |
Personal details | |
Born | 1943 (age 80–81) Tennessee,U.S. |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse | Cassandra Kendall |
Occupation | Businessman,politician |
Ronald Gene "Ron" Wilson (born 1943) is an American businessman convicted of his role in a $90 million Ponzi scheme in 2012. He was a member of the Anderson County Council from 2006 to 2010. Prior to this he served as the 68th Commander-in-Chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans from 2002 to 2004.
Wilson served as Commander-in-Chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans from 2002 to 2004. During that time,he disparaged and limited the participation of those within the Sons of Confederate Veterans leadership that he and others termed "moderates",and worked to more closely ally the group with secessionist advocates and white supremacists,including Kirk D. Lyons,Boyd Cathey,and others,and also with groups like the avowedly secessionist League of the South. [1] [2]
Wilson ran unsuccessfully in 2004 for a seat in the South Carolina Senate representing Anderson County. In 2006 was elected as the Republican member for District 6 in the Anderson County Council. Wilson also served on the South Carolina Board of Education. [3]
On November 13,2012,Wilson was sentenced to almost 20 years in prison for operating a "Ponzi Scheme" from 2001 to 2012 that swindled investors of almost $90,000,000. [4] In the scheme,he convinced retirees,friends,business associates,fellow members of the SCV and others to take cash from retirement accounts and insurance policies,as well as more liquid cash,and invest in his silver investment business,Atlantic Bullion &Coin,Inc. He promised he would monitor "key indicators",invest accordingly,and rake in large profits. He never bought silver for most of his clients,telling them that the silver was in a Delaware depository. (The depository had never heard of Wilson.) As with all Ponzi schemes,new invested money was instead used to pay earlier investors and keep the scheme alive. Besides time served,his sentence requires restitution of $57,401,009. [5] A web site has been set up to assist victims of the Wilson scheme in making claims,as well as providing news and information. [6] Several investors who received unearned profits were sued to retrieve the money. [7]
In 2014 Wilson received an additional six months on his prison sentence due to attempts to hide assets that involved his brother and ex-wife. [8] [9] in 2021,he was removed to a halfway house,then to home confinement. He will remain on probation until 2029. [10]
Charles Ponzi was an Italian swindler and con artist who operated in the U.S. and Canada. His aliases included Charles Ponci,Carlo,and Charles P. Bianchi.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) is an American neo-Confederate nonprofit organization of male descendants of Confederate soldiers that commemorates these ancestors,funds and dedicates monuments to them,and promotes the pseudohistorical Lost Cause ideology and corresponding white supremacy.
Reed Eliot Slatkin was an initial investor and co-founder of EarthLink and the perpetrator of one of the largest Ponzi schemes in the United States since that conducted by Charles Ponzi himself.
A high-yield investment program (HYIP) is a type of Ponzi scheme,an investment scam that promises unsustainably high return on investment by paying previous investors with the money invested by new investors.
Robert Allen Stanford is a convicted financial fraudster,former financier,and sponsor of professional sports. He was convicted of fraud in 2012,having operated an eight billion dollar Ponzi scheme,and is now serving a 110-year federal prison sentence.
Thomas Joseph Petters is a former American businessman and chairman and CEO of Petters Group Worldwide,a company which stole over $2 billion in a Ponzi scheme. He was convicted of massive business fraud in 2009 and is now imprisoned at the United States Penitentiary,Leavenworth. Amid mounting criminal investigations,Petters resigned as his company's CEO on September 29,2008. He was convicted of numerous federal crimes for operating Petters Group Worldwide as a $3.65 billion Ponzi scheme and received a 50-year federal sentence.
Bernard Lawrence Madoff was an American financial criminal and financier who was the admitted mastermind of the largest known Ponzi scheme in history,worth an estimated $65 billion. He was at one time chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange. Madoff's firm had two basic units:a stock brokerage and an asset management business;the Ponzi scheme was centered in the asset management business.
Nicholas Cosmo is an American former businessman and white-collar criminal. He was arrested January 26,2009 on charges of an estimated $370–413 million Ponzi scheme. Cosmo conducted the scheme using his company Agape World Inc. in Hauppauge,New York,which claimed to make its profits via commercial bridge lending. Authorities arrested him in Hicksville,New York.
The Madoff investment scandal was a major case of stock and securities fraud discovered in late 2008. In December of that year,Bernie Madoff,the former Nasdaq chairman and founder of the Wall Street firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC,admitted that the wealth management arm of his business was an elaborate multi-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme.
In 2005,Dale Graybill and his wife Shirley were charged in Connecticut with mail fraud and tax fraud. They had previously been charged in Alabama with securities fraud. They pleaded guilty to all of these.
Gary Allen Sorenson is a Canadian businessman who was arrested at Calgary International Airport on September 29,2009 for an alleged role in a Ponzi scheme that scammed investors of more than C$300 million,the largest in Canada. On July 28,2015 Gary Sorenson,71,and Milowe Brost,61,were sentenced in a Calgary courtroom to 12 years in prison for their elaborate,multimillion-dollar fraud.
Scott W. Rothstein is an American disbarred lawyer,convicted felon,and the former managing shareholder,chairman,and chief executive officer of the now-defunct Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm. He funded an extravagant lifestyle with a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme,one of the largest such in history.
Kevin Foster is an English investment fraudster,convicted of 14 counts of deception and theft in relation to his operation of a £34m Ponzi scheme,which ran from 2002 to 2004.
Kenneth Ira Starr is an American accountant and former money manager convicted of running a $35 million Ponzi scheme with the money of numerous wealthy and celebrity clients. Sentenced in March 2011,Starr has been released from the Otisville,New York Federal Correctional Institution under the supervision of the Residential Reentry Management (RRM) field office in Brooklyn,New York. Starr served the remainder of his 7.5-year sentence in a halfway house,and his term ended in December 2016.
Nevin Karey Shapiro is a convicted felon who received a 20-year prison sentence for orchestrating a $930 million Ponzi scheme. According to interviews,he allegedly engaged in rampant violations of NCAA rules over eight years as a booster for University of Miami athletes. Shapiro allegedly provided football players cash,goods,prostitutes,and assorted favors.
International Investment Group (IIG) is an American financial institution that specializes in short-term trade finance and commercial finance with a focus on emerging markets. Through its affiliate IIG Capital it provides financing to small and medium-sized merchants,traders and processors with a need for supply chain financing.
Timothy Shawn Durham Sr. is an American former lawyer and businessman convicted in 2012 of the largest corporate fraud ever investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Indiana. His investment firm Obsidian Enterprises invested in a number of companies,including wireless device company BrightPoint and comedy brand National Lampoon,Inc.,where Durham served as CEO. In 2012,Durham was sentenced to 50 years in prison in connection with a Ponzi scheme that defrauded 5,400 investors,many of them elderly,of approximately $216 million,according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.