More than $16.5 billion disappeared like smoke in 2009.
- The FBI opened more than 2,100 securities fraud investigations in 2009, up from 1,750 in 2008. The FBI also had 651 agents working in 2009 on high-yield investment fraud cases, which include Ponzis, compared with 429 last year.
- The SEC this year issued 82 per cent more restraining orders against Ponzi schemes and other securities fraud cases this year than in 2008, and it opened about six per cent more investigations. Ponzi scheme investigations now make up 21 per cent of the SEC’s enforcement workload, compared with 17 per cent in 2008 and nine per cent in 2005.
- The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed 31 civil actions in Ponzi cases this year, more than twice the 2008 amount.
More than 150 Ponzi, or pyramid, schemes collapsed in 2009, compared with about 40 in 2008.