Ponzi / Pyramid

The scaffolding stayed up for two years. Nobody ever climbed it.

Italian prosecutors say more than half a billion euros in state tax credits moved through over sixty shell companies for renovation work that never happened. The scaffolding was the alibi. The state was the mark.

Latest
Ponzi / Pyramid

The curse was the product. The bank account was the altar.

A federal indictment unsealed this week in the Western District of Washington alleges a Frisco, Texas couple ran a curse-removal scheme that pulled more than $2 million from a single Washington victim. The machinery kept running, prosecutors say, even when one operator was behind bars.

Ponzi / Pyramid

The veteran's badge was the door. Somebody else walked through it.

A federal contracting program built for service-disabled veterans was allegedly used as a doorway by two companies that did not qualify to walk through it. The DOJ says the door is now closed. The veterans say it was never really open.

Ponzi / Pyramid

The photograph cost five hundred dollars. The list inside it cost six thousand people their names.

Federal prosecutors say a healthcare worker in Miami photographed patient records with his cellphone and sold them to a buyer who resold the lists for as much as $7,000 each. The numbers belonged to more than 6,000 Medicare beneficiaries who never knew their files were leaving the room.

Ponzi / Pyramid

The spreadsheet had names, socials, and a column for what each identity earned

Christopher Staggs ran his pandemic unemployment scheme out of a Chicago LLC and kept a ledger of the people whose identities fueled it. On June 9, 2026, a federal judge gave him two years.

Ponzi / Pyramid

The bedroom in Devon, the wholly unrealistic return, and the 81 percent that never traded

Daniel Pugh sold a trader's life on Facebook from a bedroom in Devon. The FCA has now secured £452,286.80 in compensation. The math of what he actually traded is the part that should stop you.

The Daily Brief

The courier knocked twice. The second time, the sheriff was waiting.

Elena Ruiz · 5d ago

The CFO sent the report. The report was the lie.

Elena Ruiz · 6d ago

The hedge fund was a man with no face and a wallet that ate the deposit.

Elena Ruiz · 6d ago

The mailbox was the machine. Six years it ran on other people's names.

Elena Ruiz · 6d ago

The ice cream vendor became a financier. Forty thousand people believed him.

Elena Ruiz · 6d ago

The quarterly statement said sixteen percent. The fund said nothing at all.

Elena Ruiz · 6d ago

The bridge loans never existed. The bridge to Tbilisi did.

Elena Ruiz · Jun 6

The trade started at five in the morning. The name on it was decided after lunch.

Elena Ruiz · Jun 6

The valve in Dubai kept turning after the company said it stopped

Elena Ruiz · Jun 4

The check left her hand. The check never reached the bank.

Elena Ruiz · Jun 3

The detective who knew the paperwork was the lock and the key

Elena Ruiz · Jun 3

He told the court he was good with money. The ledger told the rest.

Elena Ruiz · Jun 3

The tree-planting fintech that planted its own customers

Elena Ruiz · Jun 2

The teller pulled the large balance report. That was the door.

Elena Ruiz · Jun 2
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