Imagine our surprise at the Star-News office when the quiet, charming advertising account executive of six months we knew as Maria turned out to be our very own Bernie Madoff.Apparently Standefor/Maria was tops in sales at the paper.
As Jeanetta M. Standefor of Altadena, she was sentenced last week to more than 12 years in federal prison for running a $17.8 million Ponzi scheme from 2005 to 2007. About $1.9 million of that was spent on herself, according to the case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
She spent $76,000 on her wedding, not to mention shelling out $17,000 for the honeymoon, $170,000 for jewelry, $270,000 for cars and car-related expenses, $180,000 for entertainment and $650,000 for improvements "one of her homes."
Not quite up to Madoff standards, but enough to defraud nearly 600 investors in California, Georgia and Nevada through her Accelerated Funding Group that mostly targeted middle-class African-American investors.
Jan 26, 2009
She knows how to sell
An interesting item from reporter Janette Williams tucked into Sunday's City Beats column in the Pasadena Star-News:
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5 comments:
Jeez, they should give her Lambert's job.
SGVN salesperson on the year.
of the year, rather
How funny! From the complaint:
"AFG and Standefor further used 'investor coordinators' to help AFG disseminate information about the AFG Offering and to handle distributing paperwork for the investments."
skip
"In some instances, Standefor personally attended these meetings to explain the AFG Offering. During one meeting, on or about August 20,2006, at a golf course attended by more than 100 people (including approximately 10 nembers of the Los Angeles Police Department), Standefor represented that (1) investors would receive a high rate of return in a short amount of time, (2) the investments were secured by a lien on real property, and (3) the investments were virtually risk free because investors could get back their initial investment at any time."
Don't read the paper anymore, but I have to ask why this was "tucked" in a column. Sounds like a real story to me.
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