$20 Million Scam Dupes The Well-Heeled & Sophisticated

A recent article appearing in the Village Voice's weekly publication, SF Weekly in San Francisco, serves as a reminder that it isn't only the poor, uneducated, and/or financially unsophisticated that are vulverable to scam artists. The educated and financially well-heeled can be just as susceptible to being fleeced, as this story (not a real estate scam) tells. It was an almost $20 million beating that was suffered by a group of investors from the Bay Area of California that included tech executives, physicians, lawyers, and other monied types among those being duped. Not surprisingly, embarrassment was a key factor in keeping the victims from discussing the case in any detail with the columnist for the story. The information for the story was gleaned primarily from court documents, including a criminal indictment and civil lawsuits filed against the alleged scam artists. For more, see Take the Money and Run (Rebecca and Terry Solomon face charges of fleecing almost $20 million from investors, but not even the feds know where the couple is hiding).