Roofer

Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2008
Chattanooga: Currencies trader granted $250,000 bond
By: Monica Mercer

The Chattanooga foreign currencies trader accused of bilking investors across the nation out of at least $33 million has been granted an opportunity to get out of jail if he can come up with a $250,000 bond.

Luis H. Rivas pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in U.S. District Court in Greenville, S.C., where he faces federal mail, wire and securities fraud charges stemming from an alleged Ponzi scheme he ran within the last year out of offices in Chattanooga and three other states.

A federal judge granted Mr. Rivas bond during the Friday hearing and appointed a federal public defender, an indication he cannot afford to pay a private attorney.

Bankruptcy Trustee Grey Steed, appointed to examine Mr. Rivas’ finances and seize assets that eventually will be distributed among investors who file claims, said Monday he plans to meet with Mr. Rivas in the near future.

An investors meeting is expected to be held in Greenville with Mr. Rivas present so people can confront him about where their money went, he said. So far, about $2 million in cash has been recovered from Mr. Rivas’ accounts, as well as about $1 million worth of luxury cars, real estate, furniture, jewelry and furs, Mr. Steed said.

A Kansas state trooper arrested Mr. Rivas in late June in Topeka during a traffic stop that revealed his fugitive status. Just days before the arrest, federal investigators had laid out their case against the businessman, alleging he had devised a scheme to defraud hundreds of people while living a lavish lifestyle that included paying the mortgages of some of his 200 employees.

Mr. Rivas is being held in the Anderson, S.C., city jail, federal defender David Plowden said Monday.

If Mr. Rivas is able to make bail, court documents indicate he would have to forfeit his passport, go on house arrest, submit to electronic monitoring and avoid all contact with the about 500 victims of his alleged scam that offered great riches but left many depleted of their life savings.

The criminal allegations were preceded by Mr. Rivas’s involuntary bankruptcy in May, which a federal bankruptcy judge in Chattanooga granted based on the belief that he was in the process of liquidating his bank accounts and trying to leave the country before authorities could find him.

Investors said Mr. Rivas — who spent 10 years in state prison in the 1980s and ’90s for fraud involving rare coins — promised returns of as much as 10 percent a month on their investments in the foreign currencies market, bankruptcy court documents show.

Mr. Rivas stopped paying those returns in the spring, and in some instances, simply took people’s money and paid no returns at all, the documents state.