Georgia Bankruptcy Blog

By: Scott B. Riddle, Esq.

Perkins, as Chapter 11 Trustee for International Management Associates, Inc. v. Crown Financial, LLC, Adv. No. 06-6421, 2007 Bankr. LEXIS 1566 (Bankr. N.D. Ga. March 7, 2007)(Mullins).  Debtor was a hedge fund that the Trustee contends was operated as a fraudulent Ponzi Scheme (see here, here and here for prior posts about Kirk Wright and IMA). Prior to the debtor's bankruptcy petition, the debtor and defendant were engaged in litigation which resulted in a settlement in January 2006.  Pursuant to the terms of the settlement, the debtor paid the defendant $590,000. 

The Trustee filed an adversary, alleging that the payment was a fraudulent transfer under Bankruptcy law and Georgia state law as the defendant took the payment knowing that the debtor was operated as a Ponzi scheme.  The defendant filed a motion to dismiss based upon failure to plead fraud with particularity, or for a more definite statement. 

The Court denied the Motion.  The complaint alleged that a settlement was reached in the state court action, the approximate date of the payment and the source of funds of the payment.  Importantly, in their pleadings, the defendant was able to identify the specific transaction.  Thus, the complaint was sufficient to allow the defendant to answer and defend the claim.  For the same reasons, the Court denied the motion for more definite statement.

 The court also denied the defendant's motion to strike immaterial matters, such as the Trustee's recitation of the history and operation of IMA.  The allegations may be relevant to establishing fraud or a Ponzi scheme. 

WHAT IS A PONZI SCHEME?
According to SEC filing dated October 30, 2006 – Sidney D. “Trip” Camper was fired from Elandia Inc. when the Ahkoy family fell victim to investment fraud headed by Elandia’s Allen Stanford and Trip Camper. Forced to resign by Allen Stanford himself (see SEC link below), Trip Camper moved on to his next victim, a private company in Los Angeles. In true School of Stanford form, Trip Camper promised to take the private company public. Instead, Trip Camper recruited a new partner in crime, Ed Berkhof and together they formed a “shell” holding company, milked the private company of thousands of dollars, illegally obtained company stock and pretended to be the company owners- and owners of all the assets. By pretending to own the company’s assets, Trip Camper and Ed Berkhof worked to dupe private investors out of capitol that they used to pay themselves and their creditors. This is a Ponzi Scheme. Instead of taking the company public, Trip Camper and Ed Berkhof spent thousands of dollars, took a trip to London on a company American Express card, performed a hostile takeover, and ruined the honest, profitable company. Since then, the Ahkoy family is suing Elandia Inc., Allen Stanford is in Federal prison, and Trip Camper is still using The Stanford Group as a reference on his curriculum vitae. FBI will hopefully catch up with Allen Stanford’s den of thieves. Don’t let this happen to you.

http://www.secinfo.com/d14D5a.v6Q98.c.htm