Brooklyn Ponzi Scheme Exposed

Following in the shameful footsteps of criminals like Bernard Madoff and R. Allen Stanford, a Brooklyn money manager was arrested today and charged with running a $40 million classic Ponzi scheme. Among those affected are many retirees, several of them losing their life savings to the scheme that Philip Barry has run since the 1970s.
 
Officials in charge of investigating the case have revealed that Barry originally tried to invest the money legitimately, putting some of it into real estate investments that never became profitable and some into the pornography industry. Since then, Barry conned hundreds of people into giving them money for what the victims thought were safe investments and instead carried out a standard Ponzi scheme.
 
Barry ran a small group of companies that were collectively known as Leverage Group out of an office in Bay Ridge. There, according to his investors, he managed to win the trust of the community because of his promises of consistent 12 percent as well as his seemingly trustworthy demeanor.

Image: Flickr