02/26/10
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Federal agents bust internet Ponzi scheme
Federal agents reportedly served search warrants in downtown Minneapolis recently in search of evidence of a suspected internet-based Ponzi scheme.
Agents from the Secret Service, Internal Revenue Service, the FBI and the Minnesota Financial Crimes Task Force removed files and computers from the offices of Inter-Mark Corp., a firm run by convicted tax evader Steven Mark Renner, according to a report from the Minnesota Star Tribune.
Citing anonymous sources, the Star Tribune said that the investigation of the scheme may have international implications as it “may have attracted tens of thousands of customers worldwide, including in Canada, China and Russia,” it said.
According to John Kirkwood, the Secret Service's special agent in charge in Minneapolis, the search is “part of the Secret Service's investigation of a suspected Ponzi scheme that is headquartered in Minneapolis and that is operating over the internet,” the paper reported.
According to reports the Ponzi scheme may have been worth $1.2 billion with as many as 66,000 “members” of the scheme's club, which may have been run through iNetGlobal, an internet service provider and marketing company.