Imagine the scene: Jack Bauer, wounded but still on the job, gets a call from Chloe O’Brien notifying him that he has been defrauded of more than $800,000 in a Ponzi scheme. How do you think Jack would respond? Likely in ways that Keifer Sutherland, the actor who plays Bauer, cannot.Independent.ie is reporting that Sutherland was one of many victims in an alleged scam run by Michael Wayne Carr, who promised to generate profits by buying up steers in Mexico and selling them for a profit in the United States. Sutherland is cooperating with prosecutors in California.
Sutherland supposedly had the deal checked out by one of his advisers before investing. And yet he still fell victim to it. It happens all the time. Financial advisers have plenty of experience in evaluating financial statements and forecasting rates of return. But they have very little exposure to cleverly-disguised scams. How, then, are they supposed to know a fraud when they see one? What investors need is an objective investigator with decades of experience in telling the difference between a legitimate enterprise and a scam designed to look legitimate.
Notice, also, that Sutherland fell victim to this scheme because he knew the man who offered the investment. Scam artists are opportunistic. Some deliberately target the rich and famous because they like being close to celebrity and because they know that the famous often have enough money to invest. But a scam artist is just as happy to take your money. He will likely come at you through someone you trust, an investment adviser, an insurance agent, an attorney, because he knows that your guard will be down when evaluating an investment that comes from a trusted source. But trusted sources often become unwitting accomplices because, while they may be smart and accomplished, they lack experience with scams.
If you need your nest egg, hire someone who has experience recognizing scams to do a pre-investment investigation. Tens of thousands of people are now starting over with nothing because they failed to do so.
