''People are making investment decisions based on what they read on a Web site -- and that is insane,'' Harold Degenhardt, the SEC's district administrator in Fort Worth, Texas, said in a telephone interview.
SEC Acts Against New Utopia Internet Scam
By MARCY GORDON
.c The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (April 9) -- With the tax deadline less than a week away, a tax-free haven in the Caribbean may sound alluring. But would you believe a country called New Utopia, built on concrete platforms on an underwater land mass?
Unfortunately, investors fell for it on the Internet and sank money into a phony $350 million bond offering, federal securities regulators say.
And a federal judge in Tulsa, Okla., on Friday granted the Securities and Exchange Commission's request for an emergency restraining order against Lazarus R. Long, who calls himself Prince Long, and his New Utopia company.
The order by Judge Michael Burrage freezes all money raised by Long through the alleged fraudulent scheme, estimated at around $100,000. Burrage scheduled a hearing for Tuesday.
Long's attorney, Benjamin Willey, didn't immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.
It appeared to be the latest twist in a growing list of fraudulent investment schemes using the Internet, along with shares in eel farms, coconut plantations, movie ventures and exploration of a near-Earth asteroid.
''People are making investment decisions based on what they read on a Web site -- and that is insane,'' Harold Degenhardt, the SEC's district administrator in Fort Worth, Texas, said in a telephone interview.
Copyright 1999 The Associated Press |
