‘Garbage Into Gold’ Ponzi Scheme

The Perfect Scam

AARP

True Crime, Aarp, Fraud, Society & Culture, Scam, Crime, Bobsullivan

4.5 • 980 Ratings

🗓️ 4 August 2023

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Wayde McKelvy and Troy Wragg stir up enthusiasm for their company, Mantria, and a green energy revolution they promise in the form of a product called “biochar.” Their “garbage to gold” scheme attracts scores of investors and even the attention of former President Bill Clinton. But soon the Securities and Exchange Commission discovers that Mantria is a Ponzi scheme, laced with bogus claims and false promises of enormous returns, ultimately defrauding investors out of millions of dollars.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week on The Perfect Scam.
0:03.0	The way that this whole thing was put together by the schemers,
0:07.0	it was almost like a cult.
0:09.0	They would meet in Las Vegas.
0:11.0	They would meet all around the country.
0:13.6	There were videos that were taken of the seminars
0:16.2	and they literally just whipped people into a frenzy
0:19.5	about this idea.
0:21.5	Mantria market itself as the next Microsoft, the next Apple.
0:26.0	People believed it when they told them that Mancher is going to be the next, you know,
0:30.0	multi-billion dollar company. Welcome back to the perfect scam.
0:36.6	I'm your host Bob Sullivan.
0:39.7	Everyone loves the notion of getting in on the ground floor of a big new idea of making a fortune by being
0:45.8	an early investor in the next Microsoft or Amazon or Google.
0:50.5	And after tough years in the stock market, it's only natural that savers might consider alternative investments.
0:57.0	But there is no shortage of snake oil being sold to people looking for high returns,
1:02.0	and the investment world is full of alternatives
1:06.4	that end badly.
1:07.4	Today's story is about a 10-year quest for justice and a Ponzi scheme run by criminals who made sales pitches that would
1:16.1	make Bernie Madoff blush.
1:19.1	Like this claim, that investors would get rich from technology that could make garbage into gold.
1:26.0	Revolutionary clean technology to reduce landfills by 30% and produce high-grade biochar,
	...

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