From Phoenix New Times.
Phoenix real estate has more than it’s fair share of dreamers and schemers, but then there’s the pure scammers like “Apartments America” which operated in Phoenix and southern California.
A grand total of 647 investors were owed more than $91 million, and no one got a dime through the bankruptcy proceedings…
… following PPA’s final investor offering in 2009, virtually none of the investors’ funds were used to invest in new property purchases, as had been promised to investors; instead, the money was used to pay earlier investors and banks, to pay Stewart and Packard, and to pay PPA’s bankruptcy attorney.
But it seems like they were close to getting away with it, they declared bankruptcy in 2009 but they weren’t indicted until 2014.
I would like to think that I have such a good B.S. detector that I can’t be scammed… but then again I’m sure all those 647 investors thought the same thing.
I’m intrigued about how scammers sell their Ponzi schemes to investors. I wonder how their sales pitch went.
One Response to Phoenix real estate scams
I don’t invest in anything I don’t understand. Yes, I miss out on some stocks that go flying up, but if I don’t understand the business model, I don’t buy it. That saves me from the losses.
Rental properties where the rent is high relative to the price of the home? Easy to understand. Some business where somebody promises me a crazy return that seems to good to be true? don’t do it! Some speculative stock that is supposed to go up for some reason? Nope. Some stock that makes stuff I use, see being sold, and has audited financial reports that I can read? I’ll consider it!
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