• Retain multiple attorneys to decrease the odds of strong lawsuits.

• When confronted, offer viable “economic environment” excuses and continue to confirm your “full intention” to repay.

• Play the legal system to your advantage. If you take enough of people’s money, they won’t be able to afford (or will be reticent) to invest tens of thousands more on judgments they will never be able to collect.

• Ride out the five-year statute-of-limitations on financial crimes and get to work on your next con.

Doing Something About It

Edmund Burke told us that evil prevails when good men do nothing.

It is time for good men and women in this profession to unite to do something, and I can tell you what it is: We must call on Congress to extend the statute of limitations on financial crime. If you decide to take action and voice your concern, simply cite Title 18, Section 3282 of the United States Code. As the law stands today, it motivates the criminal and makes the vulnerable (the elderly and unsuspecting) all the more vulnerable. This is an evil we should not and need not tolerate any further.

I have begun discussions on this matter with Sen. Charles Grassley’s office, as he is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. His staff have informed me this is an important matter, but that for the law to change, we will need to speak up about it. This means having our various associations express their concern to the committee and to law enforcement as well. Attorney Josephine Colacci, the FPA’s public policy counsel, brought to my attention that this statute is extremely outdated, having been passed in 1954. This is a change in our laws that is long overdue and it is lawmakers’ responsibility to ensure that the laws reflect our modern realities. If you want to voice your concern directly to the Senate Judiciary Committee, you can do so directly by contacting [email protected].

Dear reader, I hope none of you, your family, or your clients will ever have to endure such an experience as my mother has. I have laid my heart bare in this story, and now from that same heart, I have a request. On behalf of all those who have suffered at the hands of fraudsters, will you help me do whatever is necessary to correct this overdue injustice? Let us call on our lawmakers to pass a law protecting the victim instead of insulating the criminal.

Statute 3282 needs to be written with terms that impede fraud, not encourage it. Think of the legal saying, “Justice delayed is justice denied,” (attributed sometimes to British statesman William Gladstone).