Copyright held by The John Cooke Fraud Report. Reprint rights are granted with attribution to The John Cooke Fraud Report with a link to this website.
Richard “Rick” Adams either had some stunning connections or a lively imagination. His purported lies included the one about his grandfather being close friends with a wealthy Saudi Prince who wanted to lend some of his vast store of money. Then there was the story about his personal ties with the Queen of England, who was also interested in making private loans through him (Adams). He would pepper the tales with claims that a Wall Street broker would oversee the transactions, lending a dose of credibility.
His company, International Business Services Alliance, must have looked good to those who approached him for loans. Clients came from as far as China, Peru, India and Mexico. They would fly to Adam’s Fort Lauderdale office and be convinced to pay large advance fees in order to assure their loans would go through. One would-be borrower paid $350,000, but the promised loan, of course, never materialized. In fact, in almost ten yearUs time, not one of the loans was ever funded, however Adams raked in advance fees from 50 victims of more than $5 million.
Business was so profitable that a number of branch offices began operations. All that may be crumbling with AdamsUs arrest on a US warrant. Authorities are being asked to extradite Adams on charges of wire fraud, mail fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. The same 23-count indictment was used to charge the Fort Lauderdale office manager, Rloan Colon of Miami; the Tampa officer manager, James Stuart Faller; Faller’s assistant, Natale F. Malfa; Tampa company salesman, Norman Dennis Schuermann; public relations worker, David Duane Dunn; the Connecticut officer manager, Barbara Murray; and Gerald Lrti, who worked out of both the Fort Lauderdale and the Luxembourg office.
© Copyright 1997 Alikim Media