I HATE MEN

[Carlie]

I hate that my husband just lost all of our life savings, our kid's college fund, and our 401K in an investment scheme. And yes, I said I hate men because come to find out most of the other suckers were men and their wives had also warned them not to do it. They all went ahead anyway and now some are even contemplating suicide because they're too dumb to see that doing so will screw over their families even more.

[[deleted user]]

Man, that's a bummer. I mean it was probably a man who impregnated the woman who gave birth to whoever came up with the idea for the investment scheme that your husband lost all the cash in, and I feel pretty confident that when the court appointed legal receiver is forced to contact you by phone (also an insidious male invention) to inform you (years down the line)that you can expect (I'm going to guess a MAXIMUM of .25 cents on the dollar)several of the men who invested to contest the ruling, delaying your chances of getting ANY cash back by a pretty good amount of time.

On the bright side?

The ones who commit suicide will speed up the appeals process (unless they've got persnickety inheritors)cross your fingers!

I had the good fortune to work claims for a court appointed legal receiver handling the assets for http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litrele...
and you'll be greatly relieved to know that I found the kind of stupid greed that makes people fall for these schemes was pretty evenly divided across the gender line.

and of course...
Your kid can always go to community college.

[Carlie]

lol Marie...no he's 27....I think.
Still stupid.

Thanks for the info Steve....we had tripled our money before it went sour so even if we get a quarter of that, we still get off ok. I thought we'd get 0%, so 25% sounds really good to me right now.

I also feel stupid right now cause I'm not getting a divorce over this but all the other men involved that my husband knew had their wives walk out on them today. Maybe they know something I don't or they're plain smarter. Damn that in good times and bad times clause.

[[deleted user]]

"Thanks for the info Steve....we had tripled our money before it went sour so even if we get a quarter of that, we still get off ok."

Not to be the bearer of dark tidings, but did you get that money out before the scheme collapsed? When you say you tripled your money is that original investment + interest? or interest alone? namely, are you claiming interest gained from a criminal enterprise?

[Carlie]

well he got more than he put in out but had also put in 3X original that he got from interest alone back in. In case that wasnt clear, original investment 50K, spent >100K "interest" out, put back in recently just before collapse 150K which I assume to be 50K original plus another 100 interest.
So are you saying that the 150K he put in can't be claimed at all because it was interest from previous investment? Or we can only claim the original 50K we started with?

[Carlie]

Wow, thanks. I think I seem strong because I've gone from rich to poor before and I may not be fully grasping our situation. I'm starting to worry now cause he is crying a lot and in front of our daughter too.
Yet, I've lived without food, electricity and running water before and I don't think it's gonna be as bad as that. We still have our jobs. He'll have to declare bankruptcy but as long as we have our home, I think we'll be okay.

[[deleted user]]

Well your case is a little tricky, but let me put it to you this way, in these kind of cases the court looks at the people who invested in either one of two categories "winners" & "losers". Example: you put in 50,000 in one investment & took out 150k that makes you a "winner" but as I think you've gleaned, 100k of that is monies earned from a criminal enterprise & you would have to pay that back. However, he decided to go all back in with the 150k and that's in the "loser" category. So in short, you have a claim to the 50k because you put the money back in and your 100k balances out what would've been collectable by the court.

[[deleted user]]

Of course, there's other things at play here like did your husband roll over the investment, are they separate transactions ie: different names on the paper, was your husband acting as an intermediary on anyone else's acct (which could cause his name to show up on their transaction) etc. I can only speak to what I've seen, but these kind of organizations aren't exactly renowned for their fantastic bookkeeping, so if your husband paid by cashiers check w/in the last 10 yrs, he'll want to stop by the bank and get copies. Beyond that standard rules apply, hold onto the originals, be extra careful of any offers to release your claim by investing in another company, etc.

[[deleted user]]

And yes, it's never a bad idea to seek legal counsel outside of goodreads.

[Carlie]

We can't afford a lawyer right now and we have to cut back on expenses like private school, gymnastics lessons, etc. so we don't have any to spare. And the situation seems really fluid right now. Since it's a holiday weekend it's hard to know if the monies are in the accounts and if it was a legitimate thing. So he's crossing his fingers. But I'm thinking worse case scenario cause I was weary about this from the start and I believe if it's too good to be true, it is.
His friends who also got entangled have attorneys and they're keeping us in the loop as far as info goes. In fact, one of them got an injunction which is freezing up the accounts. But we're trying to get legal aide or some other pro bono people.

Let my story be a warning to all the wives out there, NEVER trust a man with the family's finances. Do keep a separate account just in case things go sour. Because of this blow up, I am only now finding out about some of the lies my husband felt necessary to tell me. Like the fact that he owns 6 properties as "long term" investments when I had ordered him not to get involved in that.

[[deleted user]]

"NEVER trust a man with the family's finances."

"I had ordered him not to get involved in that."

Wow Carlie! Considering the open dialogue that you're so strongly encouraging, I'm honestly surprised that anything like this could've happened in the first place!

[Carlie]

I'm sorry I offended you Marie.

[Not Bill]

I'll second Steve's advice on legal counsel, and go one further - I'd suggest some personal counselling as well.