Big Trouble In A Small Town

Big trouble is brewing in a neighboring town. Cedartown, Georgia has a scandal of its very own: an affinity fraud in the form of a Ponzi scheme is allegedly being perpetrated by a building and loan organization. The target: conservative Christian Republicans. The alleged perp: a fellow conservative Christian Republican, tho there's nothing conservative about the amount of money bilked: $140,000,000.00 from approximately 300 victims. That's a stunning average of $466,667.00 per victim.

Affinity fraud is nothing new. For a prime example, just search the name "Bernie Madoff" and you'll receive a Master's thesis of information. Like Madoff, the head of the building and loan targeted those who felt they could trust their fellow traveler. Also like Madoff, the alleged perp promised unusually high returns on investments in distressed businesses. The returns were rumored to be in the area of 8-18%. I'm no financial guru but if my business needs a loan with a 18% interest rate, my next investment would be a "Going Out Of Business" sign. Also, don't loan money to businesses that are in such a state that this interest rate looks like a solution.

And because it happened in a small town, there's politics involved. Donations flowed freely from the building and loan, over half a million dollars worth, all to Georgia Republicans. Millions were used for "personal use" by the alleged perp, who has since promised to spend the rest of his life attempting to make things right.

Bernie Madoff would be impressed.

I've taken a quick look at the top ten donors for Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Representative for Cedartown. The building and loan is not listed among the top ten, but I plan to look deeper when time allows. Neither Greene nor her office have responded to questions regarding donations.

Here are a couple of links for anyone wanting to dive in:

MSNBC

The SEC

And the

official complaint

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