I've been a bit slacking in my posting this week. The reason why- well, I've been inundated with things to do.

My family was recently (1 week ago) the victim of a Ponzi scheme. My grandparents, uncle and stepfather have lost their entire life savings. Here is a link to the news article:

www.kmph.com/global/story.asp?s=10366960

Like a number of Ponzi schemes, this business started out as a legitimate company. The owner, John Otto, purchased leases from American Express and made a great deal of money on the interest of these loans and passed them on to his clients. Unfortunately, American Express stopped doing leases in 2003 and rather than change his business operadum, he kept right on going - offering his clients new leases and acting as if all was ok.

It wasn't. He committed suicide a week ago after the Feds started investigated. To me, it looked more like a hit because he supposedly killed himself in his car in a car parking lot. I mean, if your going to kill yourself don't you do that at home?

Anyhow, my family had 99% of their assets with this man. He targeted elderly clients who wanted a secured interest rate. What he did is despicable and now there are hundreds of people (already retired) who cannot afford to pay their mortgages or for their much needed medications.

Obviously, as we have learned from Bernie Maddof, this is not uncommon. I hope this illustrated an immense need for better governing of these investment advisors. How much money and how long can they get away with their crimes before we do something about it?

No, of course, we would rather invest millions and investigate someone like me who committed a victimless crime rather than protect our parent's and grandparents future. What is wrong with our society that we place more value on my crime than protecting the welfare of our loved ones?

We strongly need to invest in a better governing body than the SEC. The feds need to redirect their investigations to crimes where there are victims and allocate resources accordingly.