SEC Charges 2 Companies in 'Green" Ponzi Scheme

by L.A.S.

In November the SEC charged four persons and two companies in a so-called 'green' Ponzi scheme. It targeted elderly investors or those nearing retirement to finance a supposedly green housing community that would use biochar charcoal substitute made from organic waste.

The SEC alleges that the "green" representations were bogus, and investors were falsely promised enormous returns ranging from 17% to "hundreds of percent" annually. In fact, the company's environmental initiatives did generate any significant cash, and any returns paid to investors have been funded almost exclusively from other investors' contributions, the SEC says.

Charged in the complaint were Mantria Corp., Speed of Wealth LLC, Wayde and Donna McKelvy, and Troy Wragg and Amanda Knorr in federal court in Denver. Mantria's only source of revenue has been from its resale of vacant lots for its purported residential communities in rural Tennessee, but those did not generate cash with which to pay investor returns because Mantria provided 100% financing for almost all of its vacant lot sales to buyers using other investors' funds.