It’s happened, I knew it would.
Thanks to the likes of Bernard Madoff and Scott Rothstein, anti-Jewish – anti-Semitism is the wrong word here - feeling is once again finding new friends.
Thanks to the Internet, Jew haters easily gather to lend each other support.
We, Jews, have our share of scoundrels, probably no more than any other “group.” What type “group” are we, anyway? Religious? If Madoff and Rothstein were observant Jews they would not have done what they did. Ethnic? Judaism has too many converts to be ethnic. The only ones who can define us are the Jew haters, and there are many.
I’d like to say that, unlike some Moslem leaders, Madoff and Rothstein never killed anyone. But I’m not so sure. When Madoff’s treachery was discovered, I understand some committed suicide; the blame lies squarely at Madoff’s feet. He also ripped off charities that now may not be able to help needy people.
Funny we don’t hear about Moslem-on-Moslem murder; Aza (Gaza) is a prime example of Murder By Management.
While Madoff and Rothstein – who, to be fair has not been convicted of anything as this is written – drilled holes in the Jewish boat, not caring or ignoring the fact that as the boat sinks, we all sink with it, a number of others also were aboard the ponzi scheme luxury liner.
What is interesting and something the Jew haters conveniently overlook is that there are many, many ponzi schemes perpetrated by non-Jews.
Even the name, “Ponzi” is not Jewish – it honors the Italian-born Charles Ponzi (March 3, 1882 – January 18, 1949) who, according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Ponzi), “was one of the greatest swindlers in American history.” The same source notes that ”Ponzi was probably inspired by the scheme of William F. Miller, a Brooklyn bookkeeper who in 1899 used the same scheme to take in $1 million.” There is no evidence to suggest that Miller, despite his Brooklyn address, was Jewish.
In the 1980s, according to http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/15/a-century-of-ponzi-schemes/, a Ponzi scheme was exposed at J. David Dominelli’s currency trading firm, much to the shock of San Diego’s upper crust. About 1,000 investors lost a total of $80 million in Mr. Dominelli’s fraud, which promised returns of about 40 percent or so. One suspects that, given J. David’s family name he, too, was not Jewish.
The following are from http://www.neatorama.com/2008/12/22/9-most-brazen-ponzi-schemes-in-history/
Maria Branca dos Santos, or more commonly called "Dona" Branca, was a poor Portuguese woman when she decided that she would open her own "bank" in 1970. To make it attractive, she promised an interest rate of 10% per month, and got thousands of clients (including the working poor of Portugal) to give her their money.
The scheme lasted more than 14 years, and during this time she's known as "The people's banker." Dona Branca was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison. She died poor, blind, and alone.
In 1993, her crime inspired a Portuguese soap opera titled A Banqueira do Povo ("The People's Banker").
In 2005, a Pakistani high school science teacher Syed Sibtul Hassan Shah went to Dubai. When he came back to his hometown of Wazirabad, Pakistan, he convinced his neighbors to give him their savings, which he doubled in just 7 days, based on a "stock program" that he had learned in Dubai.
Words soon spread of the "Double Shah" and people began investing with him. In 18 months, he took in over Rs. 70 billion (about US$880 million) from 3,000 people and was even considered to be the next political leader from the area.
When police arrested Shah on charges of robbery in 2007, thousands of people descended to the streets to protest against his arrest. He is now in custody and his case is pending.
In 1992, Damara Bertges and Hans Gunther Spachtholz founded the European Kings Club, a "non-profit" association that rallied against big European banks and promised to help the "little guys."
Investors buy a "letter," which was kind of a club share, for 1,400 Swiss francs. This entitled them to 12 monthly payments of 200 Swiss francs, which meant doubling their money in just a year.
The European Kings Club meetings were a hoot: they sang their own anthem, and the duo made a show of pressing money into the hands of the "club members."
When the scheme collapsed 2 years later, some 94,000 German and Swiss investors were bilked out of US$1 billion. In the Swiss cantons of Uri and Glarus, it was estimated that one in ten adults had fallen for the scheme.
But even after authorities raided the EKC offices and captured Bertges, her investors still believed that she was their champion. When Bertges went put on trial, her "victims" applauded so loudly that the judge had to clear out the room. For defrauding people out of US$1 billion, Bertges got 7 years and Spachtholz got away with less than 5 years in jail.
In 1999, Wang Fengyou founded the Chinese Yilishen Tianxi Group and hatched a scheme so crazy it's brilliant: ant farming. He convinced poor farmers to give him 10,000 yuan (about $1,500). In return, they got a box of "special ants" and a list of very strict instructions: spritz the ants with a sugar and honey solution at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. every day, and feed them cake and egg yolk every three to five days. Under no circumstances were they to open the box. Every 74 days, workers from Yilishen would come by and pick up the ants to be ground up and made into an aphrodisiac. For their troubles, the farmers get 13,250 yuan, a 32.5% premium every 14 months.
By 2006, Wang was a very rich man. His company was featured in newspapers and on TV. He hired celebrities to publicize his company and hobnobbed with government officials. He even got the "China's Top 10 Entrepreneurial Leaders" award from the government. His ant aphrodisiacs were sold in some 80,000 pharmacies across China and by some accounts, over 1 million people bred ants for Yilishen, giving the company an annual turnover of 15 billion yuan (US$2 billion).
In October 2007, Wang's scheme collapsed. The company started to miss payouts and thousands of ant farmers descended on his company's headquarter and government offices. A month later, Wang Fengyou was arrested.
Unlike other Ponzi scheme con artists who got off after only a few years in jail, Wang's fate doesn't look good. In the same year Wang's scheme collapsed, the Chinese government started cracking down on 3,747 pyramid schemes. Wang's rival, who conned people with a similar ant-breeding scheme, was sentenced to death.
Oh, and did his aphrodisiac ants really work? Actually yes, but not because of the ants. His products contained sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra.
Just one million people? Meh, said Sergey Mavrodi. His scheme duped two million people!
Mavrodi was a Russian scammer who along with his brother Vyacheslav Mavrodi and Vyacheslav's future wife Marina Murayveya, founded the MMM company in (the triple Ms came from the surnames of these three people). In the early 1990s, MMM promised dividends of 1,000%, promoted itself heavily in TV ads, and delivered on its promise. At its peak, Mavrodi's company was taking in more than $11 million a day from the public! Within 5 years, Mavrodi took in $1.5 billion from at least 2 million people.
When the whole thing unraveled and the police raided MMM offices for tax evasion, Mavrodi pulled another fast one: he convinced his "investors" that it was the government's fault that they lost their investment. He even ran for the Russian State Duma (the lower house of parliament) to get the government to initiate a "payback" program ... and he was elected! That was a good thing because he got himself a parliamentary immunity.
When his immunity was later revoked, Mavrodi went on the lam. In 2003, he was arrested , fined $390, and sent to a penal colony for four-and-a-half years. That translates to about $38,052 swindled per hour in the slammer.
In Denver CO (http://www.miamiherald.com/business/nation/story/1337109.html) “Federal regulators have accused four people and two companies of fraud in an alleged $30 million Ponzi scheme that lured 300 investors nationwide in purported eco-friendly investments.
“The Securities and Exchange Commission alleges Wayde McKelvy and Donna McKelvy, who were married, used their Centennial, Colo.-based company Speed of Wealth to find investors for Bala Cynwyd, Pa.-based Mantria Corp.
“The SEC filed a complaint in federal court Monday in Denver alleging the McKelvys and Mantria executives Troy Wragg and Amanda Knorr of Philadelphia overstated Mantria's successes to lure investors. “
Jewish names? Not one.
According to the Mortgage Blog (http://www.mortgagefraudblog.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/former_mortgage_broker_pleads_guilty_to_a_20_million_mortgage_fraud/ ), “Edward William Farley, 47, Hoschton, Georgia, pled guilty in federal district court to committing mortgage fraud, bankruptcy fraud, operating a real estate investment "ponzi" scam involving over 150 victims, and a check-kiting scheme.
“Farley was charged in a criminal Information on October 15, 2009 with bank fraud and conspiracy, which included the bankruptcy fraud. He pleaded guilty to those charges. He could receive a maximum sentence of up to 60 years in prison and a fine of up to $2,000,000, plus full restitution to all victims. In determining the actual sentence, the Court will consider the United States Sentencing Guidelines, which are not binding but provide appropriate sentencing ranges for most offenders.”
I don’t think “Farley” will be found In a list of Common Jewish Family Names.
The bottom line is that while Madoff and Rothstein are embarrassments to us, financial crimes are not something uniquely Jewish. As a matter of fact, our representation in any rogues gallery of criminals probably is proportionate to that of the so-called “general” population.
And yes, we have our share of terrorists – Lewisburg Penitentiary in Pennsylvania had a Jewish population. When I visited there, I asked my guard-escort what the forks with the traditionally (Ashkenazi) Jewish names did to deserve residence as guests of the Federal government I was told white collar (financial) crimes and anti-war/anti-government terrorist crimes (this was the Vietnam era).
We are supposed to be a “light unto the nations” and we are failing miserably in that area, so to write that we are “no worse than anyone else” is hardly a compliment, although it is pretty accurate.
Yohanon Glenn
Yohanon.Glenn @ gmail dot com
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