Mormon Ponzi Scheme

Utah: FBI agents closed a prominent real estate management business here Thursday and began removing documents pertaining to the investigation of what the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission calls a “$220 million Ponzi scheme.”

The SEC claims Wendell and Allen Jacobson used their LDS Church membership to gain the trust of investors.

A statement by the SEC says Jacobson, and his son Allen, 33, “offer investors the opportunity to share ownership of large apartment communities in eight states," but instead "are merely pooling the money raised from investors into large bank accounts from which they are siphoning money to pay family expenses and the operating expenses of their various companies.”

Read More: Wendell Jacobson

The father and son “raised more than $220 million from approximately 225 investors through a complex web of entities under the umbrella of Management Solutions, Inc.,” the SEC alleges.