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Criminal Resource Manual

881. Sample Indictment—Concealing a Scheme or Artifice to Defraud, 18 U.S.C. § 157

(Ponzi and Bust Out schemes often use bankruptcy as a means of delaying and hindering creditors and investigators. By using bankruptcy to hide the scheme they will violate this section.)

  1. From on or about _______ to on or about _____ , in the _________ District of ______, JOHN DOE, defendant herein, devised a scheme or artifice to defraud investors of money by falsely promising that their investments of money with him would double every six months and that this return was possible because of his contacts with foreign investors who need to move money from their country to the United States. In fact, JOHN DOE had no foreign investors and was engaged in a scheme to use new investors' money to pay some return to the initial investors, while diverting substantial portions of the investments to his personal use.

  2. On or about the __________ day of ____________ , Defendant JOHN DOE for the purpose of concealing from his investors the fact that he was unable to pay the promised return and that their money had been diverted to his personal use, filed a bankruptcy petition under title 11.

All in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 157.

[cited in USAM 9-41.001]