A couple accused of scamming Nebraskans out of half a million dollars in an international pyramid scheme have been arrested in Malaysia by that country’s securities authorities, the Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance said.
The department issued a cease and desist order in June 2005 against an organization that called itself People in Profit System Inc., which the department had been investigating since January 2005.
The organization was a global pyramid scheme promoted as a Web-based private investment club by Bryan Marsden, a British subject living in Malaysia, and several others named in the department’s order.
Marsden and his wife, Phan Sew Ken, were arrested in Malaysia earlier this month for their participation in the scheme, which investigators estimate netted them nearly $10 million illegally.
In June of last year, the department reported the organization offering investment products that promised from 5,000 to 14,000 percent annual interest returns on investors “loans” of $450 to $1,000, or lump-sum returns of almost $88,000 with more than $9,000 in dividends, “for the duration of their life.”
Approximately 70 people had responded to the scam in Nebraska. The department said its securities bureau received dozens of calls and eight formal complaints over the last year.
Category: News
