KHAMM4

Shawn-I no longer have any faith in Lou. It was difficult for me to finally except he was a con man and was not going to come through for anyone. I wanted to believe he was a truly good man but that is so far from the truth. And to answer someone elses speculation, I am not and have not been in touch with Lou. I have not spoken to him since the last time he was in the Chattanooga office, which has been a while. I started this protecting him because like an idiot I wanted to believe he was the real deal. I still do believe though that money was being stolen by someone within the office other than Lou and that blackmail was involved. I was never close to Lou, I wasn't even hired by him. By the time I was hired he started traveling all the time. I have tried to help any way I can by giving all info I know. I wish I could do more but I am limited. I have a family to care for and I am trying to move on. I am praying for everyone and I feel so ashamed for what I have said in the past.

ShawnCas

Don't be ashamed for posting in hope and faith. Sometimes it seems that is all we have to keep us from losing our sanity. I am sure anyone here would agree with that.

BBICK001

Forexgurl

I'm not sure if you realize this but Lou spells his name as Luis Rivas...not Louis Rivas.

Luis/Louis and Rivas are both very common names in the Spanish speaking community so it's not so unheard of that there COULD be other legitimate Loius Rivas's out there just wanting to sell a house and now being attacked and hounded by people from this forum.

Next thing you know you guys are going to go after the Luis Rivas that plays for the Pirates or the Luis Rivas that works for the FBI(both easily googled by the way).

Just because two men share a name does not make them the same man.

moving forward

Hope your post is very interesting. I wrote many prom notes and the checks were always made out to The Forex Project. I wonder why yours was made out to Lou. I know that Steve and Michelle were in the habit of having the checks mailed to their home because it was very common to lose track of a check when it came to the office address. It always struck me wrong that they would ask for the check to be mailed to them before the paperwork would go out. I never asked my clients to do that.
An interesting aside...I was keeping a copy of my clients paperwork in a personal file and sometime in Jan or Feb was told by Steve J that Lou said I was not allowed to keep any copies of anything. That struck me wrong.
20/20 hindsight.

Volsintenn

Man Skeptical Of Rivas Operation Met The Guru Himself
posted June 7, 2008

A man who had an elderly acquaintance invest with Ooltewah foreign currency trader Luis Rivas said he got a spiel from The Forex Project guru himself when he went to a Bonny Oaks office to check it out.

The man said by the end of the interview, "I felt cornered. I was a little afraid."

He also said it appeared to him that in the case of the acquaintance's investment that Rivas scrupulously avoided using the U.S. mail.

He said he was surprised that the check for the "interest payments" on the investment came each month via expensive Federal Express shipment rather than a 42-cent letter through the regular mail.

The FBI is looking into the activities of Rivas, who has disappeared while owing investors all over the country at least $10 million. One activity that can trigger federal prosecution is use of the U.S. mail.

The man said he examined the investment papers the acquaintance had been given. He said, "It was on a pink piece of paper and the signatures were virtually unreadable. It was merely a promissory note on a loan, with interest to be paid by The Forex Project guaranteed by Luis H. Rivas."

The man said he decided that he and his wife should go by the Rivas office on Century Oaks Drive at Bonny Oaks to check out the operation. He said a woman took them in a back room.

He said he was told that The Forex Project was offering "an invitation-only investment opportunity."

The man said he told the woman he was the caretaker for an elderly person who had made an investment.

He said at that point the door opened and "a tall, confident-looking man walked in." It was Luis H. Rivas. The man said Rivas appeared to have known everything that had been said thus far and had apparently been listening via a speaker system.

He said Rivas opened up by saying, "You look like fun-loving people."

The man said the woman began bragging on Rivas, saying he was "like a gift from God."

He said Rivas then "gave his pitch. He told us he could mathematically predict what the foreign exchange market was going to do."

The man said Rivas indicated his operation was flush with money and that he had uncanny ability to "know when to make a trade."

He said Rivas told him he hoped to begin issuing IRAs through a local bank and that he had permission from both the IRS and the Securities and Exchange Commission to do so. He said both agencies had given him guidelines to set up this new investment marketplace he was offering. He said it was so new that there were no previous guidelines in place. One of the new guidelines was that it had to be invitation only and not open to the general public, Rivas said.

He said Rivas told him he made even more money than the 36-percent return he was offering investors.

The man said Rivas told him that "banks make 300 percent on your money. Why invest with them when you can get 36 percent with me? I make about 90 percent."

The man said Rivas appeared to be in his 50s and 60s and had a young woman with him who looked about 20 or 21. He said, "She had a bewildered look. It was sort of an incongruous couple."

The man said Rivas was "sort of a powerful personality. He was definitely not the typical businessman in a suit. His shirt was open and he was wearing a gold chain and tasseled loafers. He looked like he had just come in off the beach with a drink in his hand."

He said Rivas began "pumping us with questions about how we found out about the 'investment opportunity'."

The man said, "After hearing these barely-believable statements, we felt concerned and cornered. We felt our motives for concern were under scrutiny and we shouldn't question the validity of the investment. We weren't invited to join."

He said he told him he had just not known anything about the investment and had wanted to check it out.

He said, "I told him we just wanted to make sure that everything was alright. We shook hands and we left."

The man said he began keeping an eye on the Rivas office, and he would see 30-40 cars in the parking lot on a regular basis.

He said one day when he drove by "there were a couple of black vans with government tags in the back. The employees were standing outside looking bewildered."

He said one of the last encounters he had with the Rivas office was when he asked for a 1099 IRS interest form in regard to the investment by his acquaintance.

He said, "I had great difficulty getting that - starting back in March. First I was told to come back in a week. I came back and it was still not ready.

"I told them I would be back the next morning at 9 to pick it up."

He said he was given a form, but later found that it was incorrect. "It was a 1099 miscellaneous and the box indicated it was for non-employee compensation, which meant it was for a subcontractor of the business, and did not reflect principal and interest paid."

He said after more tries, he finally got the 1099 IRS interest form.

The man said the interest payments for the investment stopped coming after the February payment, and the elderly acquaintance is out thousands of dollars.

Volsintenn

Rivas Employees Lived Large While The Good Times Lasted
Ooltewah Currency Trader Bought Houses, Furnishings, Cars For Staffers
posted June 1, 2008

For employees of Ooltewah currency trader Luis Rivas, it was fun while it lasted.

Rivas, who is facing an involuntary bankruptcy petition in Chattanooga and who has apparently disappeared, bought houses, expensive furnishings and fancy cars for the staffers he personally chose.

"You didn't go out and interview with him. He personally picked out the people he wanted working for him," said one local man, whose ex-wife was one of the chosen few.

The man said the ex-wife never told him much about her brief Rivas prosperity, but he picked up quite a bit from his sons, who also enjoyed the Rivas largesse.

The local man said, "My wife was living in a little house in East Ridge, barely getting by, then she was one of the ones he picked."

He said last fall Mr. Rivas was shopping for TVs at a furniture store on South Terrace in East Ridge. He said Mr. Rivas told his wife and another female salesperson he would like them to come to work for him at his office on Century Oaks Drive at Bonny Oaks.

He said the other woman left first, and later came back in the furniture store telling about all the things Mr. Rivas had bought for her. He said she already had a nice house, but Mr. Rivas agreed to give her $10,000 to remodel it and another $20,000 for new furnishings. He said, "She told my ex-wife about the new clothes and all the other goodies she had been given."

Then his ex-wife quickly left the furniture store and accepted his offer. She went to work as one of the managers at the office. The man said he never found out exactly what his wife did at the office, saying it was "very hush hush. I was not to know anything."

He said there was a separate office for the foreign currency traders who had been taught by Mr. Rivas his special get-rich method. He said it was next to the Sports Barn on Lee Highway.

The man said he next learned that his ex-wife had been moved by Mr. Rivas into a small subdivision on Snow Hill Road about a mile and a half past Ooltewah High School. He said there are only three houses in that subdivision, and all were owned by Mr. Rivas. He said a woman who was pregnant lived in another of the fine homes, and a third Rivas female employee lived in the other house.

The man said his ex-wife's house was worth from $350,000 to $400,000. He said Mr. Rivas took her down to a furniture store at Dalton, Ga., and she was able to pick out what she wanted to furnish the brand new house. He said she spent $11,000 for the bedrooms and $15,000 for the living room. He said the house was ready just before last Christmas.

He said the man the boys knew as "Lou" took them to Best Buy on Gunbarrel Road and told them to pick out what they wanted for Christmas. He said, "They could get PlayStation III, X Box, whatever. It was unlimited." He said one Best Buy employee made regular visits to Rivas properties delivering assorted new merchandise and was rewarded with hefty tips.

He said "Lou" bought a $4,000 motorcycle for his older son. He said when Mr. Rivas found out it was his younger son's birthday, he peeled off three crisp $100 bills from a large wad and told him, "Happy Birthday."

He said Mr. Rivas bought his ex-wife a brand new charcoal 300E Mercedes for about $35,000 at Long Pontiac.

The man said he happened to find out about the same time about Mr. Rivas being out at Circuit City buying TVs. He said he told his salesman, "I want you to come to work for me and be a day trader. I'll make you rich."

He said that man ended up in one of the new houses in Ooltewah worth over $400,000. He said Mr. Rivas bought him a new Hummer and outfitted his wife with a new 350Z Nissan.

He said in cases when Mr. Rivas bought an employee a new car, he required them to give their old one away to someone else.

He said Mr. Rivas himself lived near his ex-wife's small subdivision on a golf course. He said his ex-wife and sons would sometimes visit there.

On one occasion, he said he learned that his wife was getting out her passport. He said he found that she was going with "Lou" on a seminar - apparently out of the country.

He said when they returned, he was told that the trip had netted the Rivas empire between $5 million and $7 million.

He said he was told that Mr. Rivas speaks seven languages fluently and kept seven overseas bank accounts - one with $14 million in it.

The man said, "From the beginning I smelled a rat. I know that if something is too good to be true, then it is."

He said he was not surprised when soon after his wife got back from the seminar, she found that she was two weeks behind in getting her checks.

Employees, who were getting restless, were told that Mr. Rivas was out of town.

The man said the pregnant woman in one of the three houses at the small subdivision raised some cain about not getting paid. He said she soon was gone from the subdivision.

His ex-wife got a call saying that "Lou" had been sued by someone in Chattanooga. She tried to find out what that was all about, he said.

The man said when the local Rivas offices were abruptly closed, his ex-wife knew her run of fortune was up. She vacated the swanky Ooltewah digs. He said a number of other former staffers had to give up their upscale Ooltewah homes as well.

The man said his ex-wife "is back in a little house in East Ridge. She's trying to find a job. She's irritable and wants me to pick up the $50 a month Cricket cell phone bill for my son."

He said, "A lot of people, including my ex-wife, got a lot of goodies. But you look at all the people who invested $100,000 or $200,000 or their life savings with this man."

He said, "I figure he's sitting on the beach in Aruba right now. If you are smart enough to make this much money, you are smart enough to salt some of it away."

choppedandscrewed

Oh yeah. I'm sure its all salted away by now. How long has he been gone? 3 weeks? 1 month? 2 months? I haven't seen him in longer than that. Good luck people!!! I hope we all get what we are owed. Has anyone seen him in the last month or 2?

getaclue

Give it time... there will be a warrant.

And I am sorry if you thought I was giving advice. I simply stated what was possible.. and yes a judge can issue a warrant for contempt of court, even in a civil suit... the judge may have simply not found lou in contempt but rather ruled against him.

BillieJean

could this be Karen Goldman the article is referring to? I thought she was still married and just being an adulterous whore....I undoubtedly believe that Karen had knowledge of this scam. She should be indicted by the FBI as an accessory or accomplice to fraud. I know she recently was trading a $75,000acct. that Lou gave her. He had also bought her a $50,000 diamond ring when they went down to Orlando. She had thousands if not millions of dollars in gifts from Lou.....yet she still dressed like a teenage prostitute with horrible taste. When I last saw her in Chatt. she looked like one of those old ladys that tries to be cool by wearing a teen's clothes. Too bad she wasted a lot of our money and she still looked like a cheap whore...oh wait, thats exactly what she is! Just look at Karen for recovering some money. AND, hopefully she had the decency to divorce her husband before constantly having Lou's dick in her mouth.