Asset Protection Strategies
The late Mary Estes was the owner and sole shareholder of a number of US and foreign corporations. These corporations offered a number of services to her clients.
Services by the Estes Entities
- Asset protection services.
- Offshore banking and investment services.
- Offshore real estate investment services.
- Trustee services.
- Tax planning services.
- Fidiciary services.
- Condominium development and management.
- Other services.
The Fraud
Fraudsters, keeping a watchful eye on the dying sole stockholder of these corporate entities, discover than that many of the services provided by Mary Estes’ corporations put her clients at risk, from a tax compliance perspective. The fraudsters used this knowledge to intimdate the client’s of Mary Estes and to justify destorying electronic records of the corporation.
The Scheme
The scheme goes like this:
- Lure unwitting victims offshore will promises of legal tax planning, asset protection services and high yield investments.
- Operate a Ponzi scheme, and in this case, add an attractive beach front real estate scam.
- When the Ponzi scheme is discovered, tell the clients that the services that they were provided were not compliant with the tax laws.
- Intimate and threaten the victims, destroy records, and steal their money.
- Attack the character of the client-victims and obstruct justice.
See also
