eBay Investment Scam – Connecticut man indicted
Published January 23rd, 2006
Earlier this month, a Guilford man was indicted, in part, on charges he promised to pay consumers’ rent and car loans in exchange for their investing in his company. Thousands signed up.
Kevin O’Connor, the U.S. attorney for Connecticut, said a federal grand jury handed down an 18-count indictment against Blake A. Prater, charging him with promising victims “exorbitant rates of return” on his financial products, which he sold through his company, Wellspring Capital Group Inc. in Guilford.
Using the telephone and several websites, Prater allegedly solicited money from victims, claiming the funds would be used to acquire various companies and thus make investors lots of money. The indictment charges Prater “in fact was paying off investors … by using funds provided by new investors.”
It’s estimated that Prater pulled in more than $6 million from thousands of consumers in Connecticut and elsewhere.
