Darren Berg: A Ponzi Scheme Mastermind Escapes: Part 2

The Perfect Scam

AARP

True Crime, Society & Culture

4.5 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 26 April 2019

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Darren Berg's crimes are catching up to him. Through his company the Meridian Group, Berg has been operating Washington state's largest Ponzi scheme, defrauding investors of more than $100 million. The FBI, the U.S. attorney's office and the IRS are all on the case, combing through Meridian's financial records. People like best-selling author J.A. Jance, who invested a half-million dollars with Berg on the recommendation of her financial adviser, are realizing they may never see their retirement savings again. Other investors who have already retired are grappling with the fact that they may lose their homes as a result of Berg's crimes. Darren Berg is charged with nine counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. Considered a flight risk, he's remanded to custody. Berg claims to be cooperating with authorities, but they aren't sure he's being truthful. They think he might be hiding funds and planning an escape, and what happens next proves their suspicions.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week on AARP, the Perfect Scamp.
0:02.8	Somebody's always going to be trying to come up with a new scheme.
0:05.6	It's just too much money to be made easily.
0:09.7	He felt like he was working on a drug case rather than a white collar crime case.
0:15.4	Welcome back to the second part of our two-part story about Darren Berg, who over the course of
0:19.6	almost a decade convinced hundreds of investors to trust him with their retirement savings.
0:25.2	By 2010, some investors were wary of where their money was going, and investigators were digging
0:30.4	into Berg's business, the Meridian Group,
0:32.9	and what appeared to be a massive Ponzi scheme.
0:36.7	Last week joining us, we had Jerry Walsh.
0:38.7	She is president of the FINRA Foundation,
0:41.0	and she joined us once again because she knows a lot about this kind of thing so
0:43.9	thanks for being back once again. Thanks for having me. Jerry before we get into
0:47.2	this week's story you are president of the FINRA Foundation what
0:51.2	does FINRA stand for and what is the Foundation?
0:53.6	Finra is the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and we're a not-for-profit,
0:58.5	non-governmental regulator that oversees the brokerage industry. So anybody that sells a stock, bond, mutual fund, variable annuity has to be licensed by FINRA.
1:10.0	But Congress empowered us to do this work and we're overseen by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
1:15.0	So Finra oversees the brokerage industry and it believes that one of the most important things it can do to help protect investors is to educate them.
1:26.7	And that's where the foundation comes in.
1:28.8	About 15 years ago, Finra created the Finra Investor Education Foundation to help Americans, all Americans
1:38.8	build financial capability and we do that through outreach and through research. We've even done some research with AARP Foundation.
	...

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