Barbara Hirshfield agreed to plead guilty this week to running a $10.9M Ponzi scheme through a West Springfield loan company that had lost its license to lend in 2014. Over 200 people kept sending her checks anyway. They did not know the company they were funding was no longer allowed to make loans.
Brendan and Lisa Lawler ran a small insurance brokerage in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. Federal prosecutors say the premiums their clients paid never reached the insurers. The paperwork said otherwise.
Antonio Bonheur ran a 150-square-foot storefront in Mattapan that pulled more SNAP money in a month than a full supermarket. Federal prosecutors say the store had no refrigerator, almost no food, and a bank structure built to hide what the register was actually doing.
Richard Cody ran a twelve-year deception against retired clients in Massachusetts, sending them monthly deposits and fabricated tax forms while their retirement accounts emptied. He pleaded guilty. Two of his clients had nothing left.