The Salt Lake Tribune reports this morning that there's more criminal blowback in the Val Southwick Ponzi Scheme story. We incorporate SLTrib reporter Tom Harvey's lead paragraphs below, which set forth facts which are all too familiar:
A former St. George developer and LDS bishop is facing 10 criminal charges for allegedly selling investments and taking commissions linked to a giant Ponzi scheme that appears to be Utah's largest-ever financial fraud.Mr. Harvey's story doesn't specify whether Mr. Hammons is a Friend of Matt (FOM).
William J. Hammons, 64, is charged with second- and third-degree felonies for his work on behalf of Val E. Southwick, the imprisoned Ogden businessman who ran the scheme that collapsed in 2007 after bilking 800 or so investors out of more than $180 million.
Hammons has been called by state regulators the single-largest outside seller of securities for Southwick's VesCor real estate development operations -- perhaps as much as $52 million. Many of those investments were sold to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Las Vegas, where Hammons served as a bishop, and in St. George. The St. George investors included neighbors, church members, Hammons' partner when he served a mission for the church and his parents-in-law.
