Deaf Broker Alerted SEC of Deaf Scammer
“Being deaf and without the credentials required by the SEC and state regulators, Mr. Cooper focused on gaining access to deaf investors through feeder referrals, which were provided by other Deaf individuals with no investment background in exchange for a referral fee,” explains Joshua R. Beal, Managing Partner at investment advisor firm Schwarz Financial Services LLC. “He followed up with personal visits and calls over the video-phone where he promised returns of 15-25% a month based on automated computer trading programs.”
“Cooper approached Beal with a call over the videophone in 2007 when he was looking for advice regarding his investment firm. Beal suggested that he should register with the Securities and Exchange Commission; a piece of advice Cooper chose to ignore.”
“In 2007 and 2008, several deaf clients of mine along with some community members started telling me that they were having success with Marvin,” Beal recalls. “I contacted the State of Hawaii and the SEC because he did not require a social security number, nor did he employ a custodian or provide a fee statement for his clients.” HedgeCo Breaking News » Blog Archive » Red Flags, New Evidence May Help Convict Deaf Ponzi Schemer
In my opinion, Beam did his fiduciary duty in alerting the SEC and possibly saved more Deaf people from becoming victims of this Ponzi Scam. Cooper was informed of the legal responsibilities by a registered investment broker, yet he willfully ignored them. The actions described below are not the actions of what one would expect from a honest broker, either.
“Fisher also found an $80,000 check signed by Cooper which was to be used as a down payment for an $800,000 home in Panama, along with emails discussing his pending move.”
“According to papers filed by federal lawyers, Marvin Cooper, who ran Hawaii-based Billion Coupons Inc., may have been planning to hightail it to Panama after attempting to borrow $534,187 by putting his Kaimuki home up as collateral for a mortgage loan. Authorities believe the property was purchased with client funds”
Based on an earlier article: SEC reported that Cooper received 4.4 million dollars from 125 investors since Sept of 2007, by conducting investment seminars at community centers for prospective Deaf investors. Allegedly he only invested 800,000 dollars of the money from the Deaf clients, yet he managed to lose 750,000 dollars out of that investment. The remaining 3.6 million dollars were reportedly not invested at all. 1.4 million dollars was allegedly appropriated for his personal use.
Actually, though he is innocent until he is proved guilty by his peers in a judicial court, this doesn’t look good for him.
For those who may not know who Marvin Cooper is, he comes from a Deaf family and attended Deaf schools. His parents are alumni of a well known Deaf university. Few concerned parties felt that he apparently took advantage of the Deaf Community. Even several defending him few days ago are no longer feeling the same sentiments, once they found out more details. I hope they will recoup their money. 4.4 million dollars are a lot of money. :/
For the readers, the rule of the thumb: If a deal sounds too good to be true, chances are excellent that it is.
Correction: I typed FCC by mistake when it should be SEC. For some reason, I didn’t notice it for a while until a friend alerted me. I guess I got off the wrong side of bed yesterday am. MZ
“Being deaf and without the credentials required by the SEC and state regulators, Mr. Cooper focused on gaining access to deaf investors through feeder referrals, which were provided by other Deaf individuals with no investment background in exchange for a referral fee,” explains Joshua R. Beal, Managing Partner at investment advisor firm Schwarz Financial Services LLC. “He followed up with personal visits and calls over the video-phone where he promised returns of 15-25% a month based on automated computer trading programs.”
“Cooper approached Beal with a call over the videophone in 2007 when he was looking for advice regarding his investment firm. Beal suggested that he should register with the Securities and Exchange Commission; a piece of advice Cooper chose to ignore.”
“In 2007 and 2008, several deaf clients of mine along with some community members started telling me that they were having success with Marvin,” Beal recalls. “I contacted the State of Hawaii and the SEC because he did not require a social security number, nor did he employ a custodian or provide a fee statement for his clients.” HedgeCo Breaking News » Blog Archive » Red Flags, New Evidence May Help Convict Deaf Ponzi Schemer
In my opinion, Beam did his fiduciary duty in alerting the SEC and possibly saved more Deaf people from becoming victims of this Ponzi Scam. Cooper was informed of the legal responsibilities by a registered investment broker, yet he willfully ignored them. The actions described below are not the actions of what one would expect from a honest broker, either.
“Fisher also found an $80,000 check signed by Cooper which was to be used as a down payment for an $800,000 home in Panama, along with emails discussing his pending move.”
“According to papers filed by federal lawyers, Marvin Cooper, who ran Hawaii-based Billion Coupons Inc., may have been planning to hightail it to Panama after attempting to borrow $534,187 by putting his Kaimuki home up as collateral for a mortgage loan. Authorities believe the property was purchased with client funds”
Based on an earlier article: SEC reported that Cooper received 4.4 million dollars from 125 investors since Sept of 2007, by conducting investment seminars at community centers for prospective Deaf investors. Allegedly he only invested 800,000 dollars of the money from the Deaf clients, yet he managed to lose 750,000 dollars out of that investment. The remaining 3.6 million dollars were reportedly not invested at all. 1.4 million dollars was allegedly appropriated for his personal use.
Actually, though he is innocent until he is proved guilty by his peers in a judicial court, this doesn’t look good for him.
For those who may not know who Marvin Cooper is, he comes from a Deaf family and attended Deaf schools. His parents are alumni of a well known Deaf university. Few concerned parties felt that he apparently took advantage of the Deaf Community. Even several defending him few days ago are no longer feeling the same sentiments, once they found out more details. I hope they will recoup their money. 4.4 million dollars are a lot of money. :/
For the readers, the rule of the thumb: If a deal sounds too good to be true, chances are excellent that it is.
Correction: I typed FCC by mistake when it should be SEC. For some reason, I didn’t notice it for a while until a friend alerted me. I guess I got off the wrong side of bed yesterday am. MZ
March 4th, 2009 at 8:27 am
We also need to find out more about Jamie Clark’s involvement with this scam. The email he wrote referenced in the article makes it sound as if he’s a co-conspirator.
March 4th, 2009 at 9:26 am
I was mistaken. The Jamie Clark email mention is in this article, not the article linked to in the post above:
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090303/NEWS20/903030324/1170
March 4th, 2009 at 9:29 am
I wonder about those so-called investor, affilated with Marvin Cooper, who supposedly have their own consumers.
March 4th, 2009 at 10:37 am
Agreed with Kathy.
Investor-Agents under BCI, those who got another investors, were doing illegal. They don’t have SEC broker licenses. Pretty sure, SEC investigators will hunt them. No escape at all. Good luck to them.
March 4th, 2009 at 10:51 am
CW, I have no idea what’s going on.
Kathy, that’s a good question. If they violate any SEC regulations or laws, they may be facing criminal charges.
Dan, I guess we will find out soon.
March 4th, 2009 at 11:44 am
I never invested a red cent. But, I’m very concerned here. I want to know WHICH Jamie Clark this is. The one of ClarkNET fame or just someone else? I think since this name was dropped I think we are due clarification. You wrote, “well known Deaf university.” Why not just drop the name, “Gallaudet University.” I think the University needs to do some more before being considered as well known–at least to the functioning mainstream including the functioning deaf population. By the way it should be make known out there that Marvin Cooper is an alumnus of Maryland and Indiana Schools for the Deaf, the latter which he attended for several years before graduating. Both schools, especially Maryland, house many low-functioning alumnus who might have been scammed by Marvin. Who knows they might or not know about current news. Hmm. What you think?
March 4th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Robert, I didn’t publish the names of the schools he attended as it’s been many years since this person attended these schools. The name of the university that his parents attended isn’t important, in my opinion. We don’t see the articles naming the schools of the accused, nor the naming of the universities of their parents, if these names are not relevant to the story. However, you have provided the information, so now the readers know.
Personally I think the Deaf Community is so small that this kind of scandal will spread quickly. If there are any uneducated Deaf investors out there, they will get the wind of this scam, with the name of the accused well publicized.
March 4th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
I tried to be objective about seemingly irrelevant disclosures but the other side to this outweighed the other. It helps to make his origins known and be put on alert because if one observe, listen or read about known dynamics of scams and that of network marketing / multi-level marketing (i.e. Amway/Quixtar), which sometimes can be legitimate but not always, he/she might or not realize many schemers resort to their roots. For the better (or worse) never underestimate the power and depths of the warm markets. i have known of few cases where nearly entire classes, dorm groups or cliques at schools (deaf or not) previously attended were captivated by success or charm without substance to show for it on part of one of its own.
March 4th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
This website supposedly are those in Indiana working under Marvin. At one time, they had vlog, explaining how the program works. Marvin made comment, “I dont want to be rich, till you all become rich. Then I will become rich.”, or something to the effect.
http://www.xxxx-forex.com/ (the name of the company handling forex is removed)
March 4th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Robert, that’s true. However, others can fill in, just like you did.
Personally I’ve never been attracted to these financial schemes. They always struck me as risky ventures and it seems Deaf people are constantly losing money in these ‘investment’ plans.
Commenter, if so and these allegations from SEC turn out to be true, these people may find themselves in hot water with SEC.
March 4th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
How about Norman Jennings? He’s the one who founded one organization with cars; scammed over thousands of dollars…I forgot the name of organization. Something with BMI or BCI?
March 5th, 2009 at 9:58 am
Over the years I have been contacted by MLM and investment plans by deaf people, and was involved with Amway when in college. Let’s not forget the $5 pyramid mail scams, too.
The latest was Canadian Diamond Traders, offered to me by a colleague I liked, but my feelings told me not to get involved although some of my friends were investing. Unhappily, I later discovered that the person who introduced it to the deaf community is also the son of very close friends.
It is so easy to convince people when the marketers are friends from way back, and easier when the resources for double-checking are so hard to find. Usually all one has is a word-of-mouth story from a friend who received large returns. The more education one has, the better the chance to find information, but even those are easily fooled.
We need to teach kids in our schools that there is a way to become rich: WORK. That and a reasonable understanding of savings and legitimate investments.
March 5th, 2009 at 11:59 am
Money and friendship don’t mix. If the investment sours, usually frienship sour. In a small community like Deaf Community, the scams can have serious ramifications
Teaching students how to manage money and also to explore the risks of various investment strategies is an excellent idea. A friend learned the fine art of investments, including purchasing and selling stocks, during college which benefited him tremendously. I’ve always thought that was a great way to learn.
I do recall there is a similar program on the Internet, though I don’t remember the name of that program.
March 5th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Mishka Zean wrote:
“Teaching students how to manage money and also to
explore the risks of various investment strategies is
an excellent idea.”
Exactly! Ditto. I second that thought.
Education is the best way out of poverty; even more so for people with disabilities. In the Deaf community – too often – we believe what we see (in ASL from friends and community) rather than what we read (or perhaps, cannot read) in books and newspapers.
I watched Deaf men die of AIDS in the 80s and 90s. The newspapers and the news magazines already had plenty of information about HIV and how it was transmitted. Sadly, some Deaf men believed wrong information – what they saw in ASL from infected friends – and died from trusting friends.
Now, we have 125 Deaf investors with potentially ruined lives because they believed what they saw in ASL. The skeptic who notified the SEC and helped bring an end to the scheme (Joshua Beal) has excellent English literacy skills. On behalf of those who were not yet scammed; Mahalo Nui Loa to Joshua.
ASL is a beautiful language, a foundation of culture and community to be cherished and honored. AND, ASL skills alone are not a substitute for a good general education – including basic financial management and research skills. English literacy is a critical skill for Deaf children and adults who wish to protect their investments and move upward out of poverty to the middle class, and beyond.
Perhaps if Jane Fernandes had been allowed to become President of a “well known Deaf university”, we might have already been moving towards a truly Bi-lingual education system stressing English literacy AND ASL skills.
President Ronald Reagan once quoted from an Old Russian saying that we should, “Trust but verify.”
March 6th, 2009 at 9:31 am
FYI
I am one of the investors who invested in BCI. I already got paid for. As a matter of fact, more than half of us already paid for as in orginally invested. The story that media stated, is half truth and half false.
Lady, go research on all forex companes on-line and you will see alot of “20% to 1,000% return”. If you are an expert in trading forex, the goddamn big company will want to own you and use you for their hedge funds. SEC knows NOTHING about the FOREX tradings.
BCI had several traders who worked with him and they all stated that he was an excellent FOREX trader.
Advise to you, RESEARCH carefully.
BTW, in time, all investors will be paid in full depending on how SEC procures (most of the time, it takes months to years to get all investors be paid for).
**who?**
March 6th, 2009 at 11:19 am
It’s very unfortunate that Fernandes never managed to pull up the English literacy during her administration as Gallaudet Provost.
The good news is that Gallaudet had improved its academic rigors under the supervision of Davila.
But the blame must be placed on the hands of the K-12 Deaf Education, not Gallaudet. The Deaf Education system didn’t adequately prepare the majority of its students in the area of English literacy, critical thinking, and college.
March 6th, 2009 at 11:21 am
Oh, ASL is a language, just like English. ASL is not the reason for the weak literacy skills of many Deaf people. Poor education, lack of language acquisition during critical development period, and lack of access to a bona fide language in the classrooms, among other variables, are the reasons.
June 10th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
I am really glad that Mishka Zena posted her own blog website about Marvin Cooper. I was very skeptical about him because of some loopholes I could detect in his so called “BCI” schemes such as Ponzi. He tried to buy a house in Panama which he could fled to, but he was caught before he can flee. I warned many deaf people to be wary of him. Just type Marvin Cooper via Google. You’ll be surprised how many hits regarding his scheme would appear…long lists! check it out!
May 22nd, 2010 at 9:46 pm
hello anyone , you know this one of person name is Robert E. Casey or fake name and his sn on aim at deafsupportlive and his website is deafsupportlive.com. two days ago on today may 20,2010. he mentioned that i got $30,000.00 from government. i believe that person is very scammer. he said that he lives in texas and works in new york. i believe that his track came from nigeria, africa. if you have aim , you can play with him on his screen but please please never, never give him all information. you just can test him what he would say excastly as above then you can laugh at him and put him on block. i hope, he could be loser. wink.
October 23rd, 2011 at 8:10 am
You can look up my site abut deaf scam.
Thank you
October 23rd, 2011 at 8:11 am
Look at http://deafscammers.com
About the person that had been thru with bad people.