Affinity Scam, part 4 - the Victims

"I always want to give the victim a voice. "
Ann Rule, author
b. 1935

"I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. "
Elie Wiesel, author, Nobel Laureate, 1986
b. 1928

"Justice for the major perpetrators cannot be separated from the vindication of the rights of the individual victim. "
Jalal Talabani, President of Iraq (2005 - present)
b. 1933

In the interest of full disclosure, let me disclose a bias of mine. I have been motivated to try to find out factual information about the alleged Ponzi / affinity scheme I've written about, in large part because of my communication with some of the alleged victims. That communication has affected profoundly how I feel about this subject.

Let me tell you about one of these people, T. A. from Florida, the man in the photo above. In his 60s, he retired from a 36 year career in the United States Army, dating back to his enlistment in 1967, as a Command Master Sargent. He served in Viet Nam, in the Middle East in both Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom, as well as a variety of our covert anti-drug actions in Central America. He is a family man, a devout Christian, his youngest son is entering the ministry. He had accumulated a nice nest egg for his retirement as a self-directed investor, using bonus pay, 40 years of savings, and a modest family inheritance to fund his careful investments. Those investments had been successful until the past few years, at which point he began looking for better ways to safeguard those funds, intended for helping his sons with their education, to pay for those medical costs not covered by the VA, and to be able to pay for his own funeral when the time comes without leaving his family in debt.

The (alleged) victims in this situation, as well as those in many other similar scams are often re-victimized by those who read or hear about them, by claims they were foolish or stupid or gullible, that they had unreasonable expectations, and that they didn't properly do their homework. These comments, written or oral, make what happened the victims' fault, not the fault of those individuals who perpetrate the scams.

Regardless of the checking by the victims, extensive or minimal, at the time they invested, the deck was stacked against them, with a combination of legitimate credentials and false claims, supported by what seem pretty clearly now to be fake documents mixed with more credible bona fides. These include earlier items in the same Star Tribune news paper representing them as credible financial experts; that is the same paper that has recently run the series exposing the alleged Ponzi scheme: http://www.wfgweb.com/db/images/rally0906.pdf An example of the documents which now appear questionable appear in the most recent Star Tribune article by Dan Browning: http://startribune.com/business/63003227.html, and http://stmedia.startribune.com/documents/SaundersLetterReOxfordGlobal.pdf.

In the words of one of the smartest women I know, who works with finance and crime, if someone is determined to deceive you, they can. In the earliest days of the alleged Ponzi scheme, some of the named defendants had valid credentials. The defendants' credentials at the time T.A. invested were valid, depending on whose credentials one looked up. I don't know of anyone who checks out every person in a company before assuming the company is legitimate (not even me).

I decided to do my own checking. I duplicated the kind of 'homework' that people talk about victims doing, a brief synopsis of which I will share with readers in a future installment of my writing about Affinity Scams generally, and the Minnesota-Mini-Madoff alleged scam specifically.

Part of T.A. trusting these men had to do with their affiliation with Christian leaders, and espousing Christian values. This is often part of the standard programming of right wing radio stations, including those of Salem Communications which hosted the defendants in their various radio programs. Salem has stations here in St. Paul / Minneapolis as well as in Florida where T.A. lives which carried these radio programs.

Let me tell you a little more about T.A. He has described to me what this experience feels like for him, as understanding how a rape victim feels, violated. He wants not only his money back, as much of it as he can get; his expectations in that respect are quite realistic. He wants more than just the money. He also feels a need to do something, for himself and others, as part of getting his honor and his sense of self-worth back.

What was his response to these events? To not only do what he could for his own situation, going back to work to provide for his wife and other family members. He became one of the key people who has sought to help and organize the other victims. He has felt especially protective towards those who are very elderly, or who have become so impoverished by their investments in what appears to be a swindle that they cannot afford legal representation. There are a lot of these people who have been left floundering and destitute. Despite his own feelings, his first and foremost thought was to follow his military training to lead, to protect, to care for those more injured or vulnerable by their loss than himself.

It is a characteristic of affinity scams that unfortunately because the victims are ashamed and embarrassed, it often goes unreported unless the losses are so devastating the victim has no alternative. Sometimes, as had been the case with some of the victims of the alleged Minnesota Affinity Scam, they don't know who has jurisdiction, who to tell.

That is not going to happen here. Not if I can help it.

I cannot adequately put into words how humbled I am by T.A., how small my best efforts to help seem next to his. I never realized that a compliment could be so painful, but that is how I feel when T.A. tells me, and tells others, that Pen and I are smart people, that we have provided useful information and helpful ideas. I feel anything but smart or helpful. I feel inadequate for not having made more of a difference on their behalf.

Perhaps most of all, I have been humbled by how T.A.'s religious convictions are rock steady; I find his faith inspiring. He believes that God sends people into our lives for a reason, and that is how Pen and I came into his life, offering to help, and by caring about what happened to him. If that isn't a motivation for me to accomplish something, I don't know what is.

By every standard I know, this man is heroic, yet he sees himself in the most modest terms. I hope in this series, I am able to present the substance without the illusions created by the charm that is an essential facet of that kind of crime. Several people have asked me what I want to be the result of writing this series. I want people to be more proactive, not to look away, to understand and care, to do more than they would otherwise have done.