Sunshine Empire offers products of value and training. You also get to see the leader of the company. It is now under CAD probe

Question is not worded clearly. Why would the receiver of your payoff amount want the amount returned? Do you mean that the contributor to one of your family member's schemes wants you to pay back the money to them? Re-word and re-submit the question please.

Unless the buyer/investor is told that he is putting money into a pyramid scheme, the solicitor is committing Geneivas Daas and Mekach Ta'us (misrepresentation), which is in this case a Grama (an entrance) into theft. In other words, it is a form of lying by default and stealing by intent.

Financial crimes range from the following:

* filing false reports concerning a company's sales and profits;

* filing false corporate tax returns;

* embezzlement; and

* insider trading.

All of the above and other financial crimes tend to negatively impact the public's confidence in the business sector.

If you were an investor in Madoff's ponzi scheme, you lost money.

Because thse ponzi scheme operators receive Funds from A, give it to B, against getting fund from B, they extend the same to C and the process goes on. Once there is any bottleneck or dearth of funds from the investors, the whole system falls like card house. The Operators then have no option left than to close down their shutters, ruining the poor small investors the maximum. From this point of view, ponzi schemes are declared illegal all over the world.

$65-billion

There is no ticker symbol, Cargill is a private company.

The best rule to follow is that if the return offered seems too good to be true, it probably is, so walk away with your savings intact. Statements such as 'you will need to act fast if you don't want to miss out on this great opportunity' should set alarm bells ringing too. This kind of pressure selling to invest can happen at 'Special invitation only investment seminars' which are best avoided.

It is fraudulent from start to finish. They are offering - on a ten dollar investment! - a rate of return that is unheard of, and impossible. 1.1% compounded daily - yes, daily! - is the equivalent of 100% interest in about 1 quarter! Bear in mind a reputable bank would be giving you - if you were an enormous investor - possibly as much as 7% per quarter, not 100%!

Now they act like they are for big boy investors, but they leave that $10 option there. They also let you know that to get this deal, you must leave your money in there for 210 days, no matter how much you "invest".

There's the trick. Most may doubt a little, but figure, "Heck, I can try $10, who knows?"

Well, 210 days later - which is seven months! - you'll know. Because they aren't truly going to send everyone around $136, which is what it would work out to!

They are counting on two types. The genuinely foolish, who'll give them some large sum, and not try to get it back for seven months - by which time they may be gone. And secondly, the thousands more who are only "moderately" foolish, who'll send in the ten bucks.

Either way, they are playing with vast sums of other people's money for seven months before anyone knows to complain. And who knows, most will probably only want to withdraw a bit, and let the rest "rollover". And there'll be still more investors by then, so they could pay some people off with the new investors.

Doesn't really matter whether they are planning on flying by night in seven months, or keeping up appearances with the next generations of investors. Why doesn't it matter?

Because no one, flat out NO ONE can offer that rate legitimately. It's financially impossible. Remember, they have to make money, too. They would have to be making even more than 100% interest each quarter to afford to give you that rate.

Look around. Do you see any company or corporation on Earth growing that fast? Look through history books. Did they ever?

The answer is "no". Never happened, never will.

No. It's gambling OK, but not much different to going up to a bookie and placing a bet with him. A ponzi scheme is one which lures you with, say, high returns, but these returns are paid out of new money coming in, not necessarily out of good investment returns.

You can joke it is like a Ponzi scheme as far as money from one investor is used to "pay" another and so on....

It's a fraudulent investment scheme that works on a "pyramid concept" where the initial investers are paid abnormally high returns on their investment from money received from subsequent investors. With those returns providing "legitimacy" to the investment - the "schemer" can use that documented information to bait people with bigger bucks into the scheme. Because there is not an acutal investment in a company or other entity to generate money - the scheme will cave leaving those investors S.O.L. and the "schemer" who with any luck (on his part) has probably already left the country and has a numbered bank account in the Caymans! Watch the national news. There's a big one under investigation right now.

If he has been actually arrested, tried and convicted, you would have a great civil case, though even then, it's unlikely he'd have any money to recover.

If he has not even been arrested for a ponzi scheme, you can still sue, but you may have a hard time establishing proof of his crime. (In other words, he could state as an affirmative defense that the state doesn't think he's a crook, or they'd have prosecuted him.)

Check with an attorney. Or, depending on the amount, try small claims court. And remember with attorneys, if they want money up front, they figure they'll lose the case. If they are willing to work on a percentage (usually 33%) then they figure they'll win.