This can't be real

[Karee 4,191]

A Pennsylvania ex-con who once claimed he could cure AIDS by pumping ozone and oxygen into patients’ rear ends has come up with an even more audacious swindle, federal prosecutors say: He told investors he controlled more than $1 billion worth of Texas oil.

Richard J. Harley, who’s from Shawnee-on-Delaware, in the Pocono Mountains, claimed to own 10 million barrels of oil in Brown County, Texas, said he needed to borrow money to pump it out of the ground and promised investors they’d make their money back 10 times over, authorities say.

In reality, prosecutors say, he didn’t own any oil and simply lined his pockets with the investors’ cash.

Harley also tried depositing a pair of $500 million checks he claimed were issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, even going so far as to call the reserve banks in Atlanta and New York and demand payment, court documents said.

Harley, 68, was indicted by a federal grand jury this week on 23 counts of fraud and false statements. He does not have a listed phone number and couldn’t be reached for comment Friday. Phone message were left with his wife and with a New Jersey-based agent for his company.

In the 1990s, Harley and his wife ran a bogus AIDS clinic that charged patients hundreds of dollars for fraudulent ozone enemas. The couple swindled about $300,000, most of it from investors who bought stock in the company. Harley was sentenced to five years in federal prison.

Harley’s oil scheme began in 1999 and went on for the next 13 years, according to court documents. It’s unclear how many investors might have been defrauded or how much money Harley might have taken in.

Harley claimed his business, RJH and Co. Inc., was a “vertically held integrated privately held holding company owning, controlling, leasing, developing, and administering assets in commercial and residential real estate, petroleum products, and commodities,” charging documents said. Harley said RJH held “unrestricted bond power” over Federal Reserve bank instruments worth more than $700 billion, the documents said.

The FBI took an interest after Harley and his wife were sued in Lehigh County Court in 2009. An investor claimed he gave them $239,500 and was promised more than $1 million in return. The investor won a $1.1 million judgment.

Prosecutors said Harley filed three fraudulent bankruptcy petitions in an effort to cover up his schemes.

The U.S. attorney’s office said Harley faces up to 20 years in prison on each of the most serious fraud counts.

[Darnell 8,479]

where is your problem with the truthiness of what you've pasted?

you're asking if it's true? You can call the FBI, and the DA, inquire for more info, anytime they are open. Be prepared to pay document fees, on occasion.

or ..

post the referent URL, someone here can vette for you.

Edited September 1, 2012 by Darnell

[Karee 4,191]

where is your problem with the truthiness of what you've pasted?

you're asking if it's true? You can call the FBI, and the DA, inquire for more info, anytime they are open. Be prepared to pay document fees, on occasion.

or ..

post the referent URL, someone here can vette for you.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/state/headlines/20120831-man-who-claimed-he-could-cure-aids-indicted-in-1-billion-texas-oil-scam.ece

Don't be an a$$hole Darnell.

[Darnell 8,479]

So, after reviewing said referrent url....

I'm with you !

Is it TRUE?

It made it over to the 'state headlines' desk, but there's absolutely NO citing from ANY author. That's strange, coming from the Dallas Morning News.

what a mess !

Good Call! You Rock, and Stuff!