Press Release: Wittenberg Law is Investigating the Mitchell, Porter & Williams Ponzi Operation

For Immediate Release
Date July 1, 2010
Contact
Jeffrey Wittenberg, Esq.
877-352-2010

Wittenberg Law has commenced an investigation into the alleged Ponzi scheme operated by the investment advisory firm of Mitchell, Porter & Williams (MPW).  On March 3, 2010, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) filed a complaint against MPW, its principal, Thomas L. Mitchell, a Los Angeles resident, as well as a California trust and Nevada corporation controlled by Mitchell, alleging that the defendants have been targeting retiring MTA bus operators in Los Angeles as investors/victims of an ongoing Ponzi scheme operated by the defendants.

Jeffrey Wittenberg, Esq., is conducting an investigation on behalf of several of the victims of the Ponzi scheme operation.  Most of the victims held their retirement funds in self-directed IRAs. These victims have not had access to their money that was held in their self-directed IRAs since March, and many of them were relying on distributions from these IRAs in order to pay monthly bills.

“The victims that I have spoken to are all retirees who believed that their funds were safely held by and invested with their IRA custodian, and, as expected, they were shocked to learn that their retirement money was stolen from them. It appears that an unregistered, unlicensed investment adviser was able to sell millions of dollars of unregistered, fake securities to roughly 100 or more unaccredited investors. This type of mass fraud could not have taken place in IRA accounts without the assistance in some meaningful way of an IRA custodian, and my investigation is focused on determining the degree of the custodian’s involvement in this fraud,” stated Mr. Wittenberg.

Call Jeffrey Wittenberg at 877-352-2010 if you have questions about this matter or securities fraud in general.