Forex Bull Shit

When authorities finally nabbed a Chattanooga man Friday who is accused of bilking investors across the nation of more than $31 million, one of those local investors said the news made him “ecstatic.”

“Hopefully this arrest will give some peace and sanity back to the people Luis Rivas so openly took it from,” Shawn Casadevall said.

Mr. Casadevall is among about 500 people who listened to Mr. Rivas’ claims that he could make them rich by investing their money in the foreign currencies market — so much so that Mr. Casadevall convinced his ex-fiance’s grandparents to give $60,000 from equity in their home to the trader.

Authorities now say Mr. Rivas, a convicted felon, had been operating a classic Ponzi scam over the past year from hubs in four states, using money from subsequent investors to make fraudulent equity payments to those who came before them.

There is evidence, authorities say, that he stopped investing clients’ money altogether back in October 2007 while continuing to lure investors with promised monthly returns as high as 10 percent.

Missing since mid-May when he abruptly closed his Chattanooga trading office, Mr. Rivas was captured Friday morning during a routine traffic stop in Topeka, Kan., according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He also had closed offices in Spartanburg, S.C., Orlando, and Tulsa, Okla., according to court records.

PDF: Luis Rivas criminal complaint

Article: Trader Rivas faces federal fraud charges

Article: About $2 million recovered in currencies trader investigation

Article: Scam victims could face lawsuits
U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee Grey Steed, who has been scrambling for weeks to seize the businessman’s assets and was with FBI agents when they received word of the arrest, said Mr. Rivas was carrying $100,000 in cash, gold coins and jewelry when he was arrested.

FBI Agent Jim Lannamann of Spartanburg, S.C., said Mr. Rivas is scheduled to make his initial appearance Monday before a federal magistrate judge in Topeka. If he doesn’t fight extradition, Mr. Rivas immediately will be taken to Greenville, S.C., where he faces federal wire fraud, mail fraud and securities fraud charges in U.S. District Court, Agent Lannamann said.

Federal authorities filed the criminal charges this week, but about a month ago, a U.S. bankruptcy judge in Chattanooga forced the missing trader into involuntary bankruptcy amid fears from angry creditors that he likely was trying to liquidate his accounts and flee the country.

Mr. Steed immediately went to work trying to freeze Mr. Rivas’ bank accounts and seize other assets in an effort to eventually compensate the creditors who lost their personal fortunes.

About $2.3 million in cash has been recovered so far, Mr. Steed said, as well as $1.5 million worth of real estate, furs, jewelry and luxury cars that Mr. Rivas allegedly “handed out like candy” to his employees, wife and two girlfriends.

According to the criminal complaint, Mr. Rivas told investigators in February that he had 15 bank accounts with about $25 million invested from 222 clients. He admitted to spending 10 years in prison in the 1980s and 1990s on other fraud charges and also admitted he was not a licensed securities trader.

Agent Lannamann later determined that Mr. Rivas had many more accounts and investors, but he did not appear to be paying any of the promised returns, the complaint states.

Mr. Steed said there’s evidence that Mr. Rivas used people’s money for his own personal gain, but the bankruptcy trustee said he still received at least two calls Friday asking if the suspect simply could be put on house arrest and ordered to put the money in the foreign currencies market in an effort to recoup everyone’s full investment amounts.

“Mr. Rivas certainly does not have a track record that would make me believe he ever intended to get people’s money back,” Mr. Steed said. “Quite frankly, I find it very sad that people still believe in him.”







Some of the 510 people who collectively lost millions of dollars in an alleged local investment scam could become targets of lawsuits themselves.

Former employees and investors say Luis H. Rivas, who is under federal criminal investigation and was forced into involuntary bankruptcy Tuesday, promised fabulous wealth by investing their money in the foreign currencies market.

But of the estimated $31 million he collected over the past year from his office in Chattanooga, it appears Mr. Rivas put only $5 million into that market, U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee Grey Steed said. All the while, court documents show the businessman promised to pay every client monthly returns as high as 10 percent on their investments.

While some investors received those promised payments, others received nothing, according to court records. If any of the payments are deemed to have been made to the detriment of other investors, legal action to recover the money is not out of the question, Mr. Steed said.

“My duties are to protect all creditors equally” according to U.S. bankruptcy law, said Mr. Steed, who was appointed last week by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge John Cook to investigate Mr. Rivas’ finances.



Article:Tennessee has highest bankruptcy rate
The law states a trustee can take action to recover money distributed in the 90 days preceding a bankruptcy if the debtor was “insolvent,” meaning having more liabilities than assets.

Mr. Steed, however, said his investigation into Mr. Rivas’ financial records still is in the beginning stages. It is too early, he said, to predict under what circumstances certain investors would have to forfeit their returns, if at all.

Once all of Mr. Rivas’ assets are identified, investors will be entitled to collect at least a portion of their money. Mr. Steed said he did not know how long the investigation will take, especially since he is getting “no cooperation from the debtor.” An investors’ meeting has been scheduled for July 10 at 2 p.m. in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chattanooga.

A similar case resulted in 155 lawsuits against victims of an investment scam who lost about $100 million to the late Atlanta hedge-fund manager Kirk Wright. He committed suicide in his jail cell May 24.

A federal jury had convicted Mr. Wright just days before his death of mail fraud, securities fraud and money laundering in the wake of evidence he had lied to investors for years about what he was doing with their money. Atlanta attorney John W. Mills III said recovering payments made to certain investors is necessary to “level the playing field” so the money fairly can be returned to all 500 investors who suffered from the scam.

In Mr. Rivas’ case, court documents describe what turned out to be a “classic Ponzi scheme” in which he apparently used money from new investors to pay fraudulent investment returns to previous ones.

The whereabouts of Mr. Rivas have been unknown since mid-May, when he shuttered his Chattanooga office and fired his employees. A multistate federal criminal investigation is ongoing, because authorities said he operated offices here and in Spartanburg, S.C.; Orlando; and Tulsa, Okla. All have closed in recent months.

FBI agents have declined comment on the case, and criminal charges have not been filed.

Mr. Steed has filed only one lawsuit so far, against Mr. Rivas’ wife and two girlfriends, asking that they be barred from accessing money from certain bank accounts. The suit also seeks the return of other assets Mr. Rivas might have given the women, such as vehicles, houses, furniture and jewelry.

Judge Cook has signed a temporary restraining order freezing several accounts owned by Mr. Rivas at various banks.

Queen

Shawn Casadevall,

In January 2008 you convinced a very nervous friend, Brian to come work for The Forex Project video taping seminars with you because he did such a better job than you – made you look good. He was never paid the sign-on bonus he was promised. Did you ever tell him what a fit you through to get your Lotus but that you never said a word about his bonus?

As an equity agent, your three clients hadn’t been paid a cent since February but at the end of April you were making several phone calls, texts and going into the office everyday, not to demand their payments but to demand your commission for bringing in their money. I received several of your calls so I know you never asked me about client payments. Only about your commission. Did you tell them that you received $10,000 for that effort while they still got nothing?

I am very curious about this promissory note you claim Lou wrote you without any monitory investment. I saw and recorded all promissory notes written before May 9th and never saw yours. Let me guess – you just have a hard-to-read yellow copy?

Do you have receipts for the $20,000 worth of equipment you told the Chattanoogan was taken from you?

You and I both know that I have every reason to question your honesty since you also told the Chattanoogan that you
“…drove over to Spartanburg at the end of March and found the FBI and local police raiding the office.”
I had gotten there hours before you, Shawn and saw the police in the parking lot only to raid a house down the street. Since they were long gone by the time you got there it was just something I told you about and I told you what happened, not that we had been raided. Obviously, the FBI and local police also know you are lying about this raid on the Spartanburg office since it never occurred.

You didn’t mention that the only reason you had driven down to Spartanburg was to take equipment purchased by (yes the trustee will have those receipts) The Forex Project and have them in your own possession.

Now you use this entire situation to aggrandize yourself to this board and to the media – what a hero.

dave_walker

From a personal email addressed to me:

"... I HAVE a signed promisary note between Lou and myself from October of '07... I and my family own 7 furniture stores in Central Florida and I DO NOT need or desire free gifts from Lou... I assisted this company for over 6 months before making my first dime here. (Setting up the computer networks, ordering ALL of the phones from Sprint and At&t, moving all the office furniture time and again. Contracting the heating, air and fan guys for the traders room, (ALL for free.) ....guarantee of $10k I was supposed to earn PER seminar for my work which until February was never compensated.... the equipment that was purchased was in PAYMENT for past seminars which I had not been compensated on.... I brokered the deal with the Mayor's Mansion and was OWED a commision.... I PAID for that equipment out of my own checking account, with all said equipment being sold to MY name....the payment I made for my Lotus was after hours of Lou and I chatting and coming up with the total amount of money owed to me for the FIVE seminars I produced, the one where we constantly talked about my "investment."... I PURCHASED the LOTUS with compensation OWED to me by Lou. Want proof? I have 2 cancelled checks, a sales invoice and the ORIGINAL pad of paper which Lou and I did the figuring on while sitting in the damn smoking area of the Hilton in Greenville, SC on MARCH 26th!!!"

This was not posted as an attack nor in defense of Shawn, it is just more information.

Queen

Lou was not in Greenville, SC on March 26th but Shawn could just have his dates wrong. That would have been about the time he was "seeing" FBI raids.

He paid for the equipment AND it was payment to him for past seminars?
How many seminars did he record?
Is he a licensed real estate broker?
Besides everything else that Lou listed on page 78, didn't Shawn also receive a Land Rover as compensation?

The only reason I bring all this up is because I would hate to see Shawn add all that he feels he's owed, verses what he's actually owed, to the creditor total.

Thank you, Dave

ShawnCas

The date was January 26th. Forgive me, I made a mistake. Considering I purchased my car in February, March would have been after....

Joy - It is a shame I have to post here again after all this stuff, but since you still seem to have it out for me, let me come clean - Oh, and by the way, since you feel the need to keep stabbing me, I shall return the favor... (Should have caught that boat Joy...) What boat everyone else says? Send me a PM for the conversation -

Regarding first my Land Rover (Or Bronco as some people might call it) - My 2002 Land Rover with 54,000 miles on it. With a retail total of under $12,000. The one where I got approved a line of credit from TVFCU to purchase from a local dealership. Why did I purchase this vehicle with MY money? I needed a vehicle large enough to carry the VIDEO equipment to and from these MONTHLY seminars, (of which I PRODUCED six. (Chattanooga, Nashville, Knoxville, Tulsa, Greenville, and Spartanburg.)

Regarding MY equipment. The equipment I must feel is mine considering the police reports with the City of Cleveland.) DON'T get the equipment INTENDED for Spartanburg confused with the equipment I had been using for LONG before YOU ever worked for this company, and long before you ever took Lou's penis as a thank you!! Did you even know I brought ALL of the equipment to that office considering it was going to be the new "seminar" home???

Regarding the FBI in Spartanburg - You are blind to state I was NOT there while they were.. I WAS there, as they were still sitting, lights on (unmarked cars and marked patrol cars) in Lou's favorite parking spot under the valet area. Be damned I will let you tell me what I did and did not see. Regarding why I was there - None of your damn business, but since you must know - I was in charge of doing ALL EDITING on seminars, and training classes. I had Celeste's class to produce still and the final seminar from Spartanburg. Why I got the equipment and left??????? TINA told me Lou could NOT pay for my hotel, hence I would have to.. I was not about to pay for a hotel when I could merely drive home with MY equipment and finish production. (Which if you recall, 100 DVD's were shortly after (less than 10 days) delivered to the care of Sherry at the Chattanooga office. Want proof? I and the FBI have the masters... not to mention the bill that no one ever felt the need to pay to my duplicator.

Your words aren't worth a thing here JOY TERRY. "Soon to be mother of Lou's new child." You had YOUR BMW 5 series and YOUR lake house. Not to mention YOUR complete furnishing of it. How do I know? I was there remember??

Want to ask about part of my commission which was months overdue - Did you have any idea that I wrote a check for $5,000 out of that and freely gave it to one of my clients out of conviction? - Want proof? I can deliver the check.

Regarding the Mayors Mansion - Brokering is the wrong word and I apologize for using it. Let's try this - The owner was/is a contact of mine. Lou wanted a facility. I did ALL the leg work to make that deal happen and was promised a commission on it.. Which was paid. I regret EVER making that deal with the owner of the Mayor's Mansion considering Lou only made an attempt at 1 payment.

Let me tell you something else Joy - As you already know, I set up ALL the phones for the Forex Project initially.. Sprint and AT&T - I was the one that informed the FBI and trustee about an individual in Missouri attempting to order phones and air cards. Missouri? Kansas? Similar state line - Hmm..

Not to mention I had itemized call reports run on all active phones (which is allowed by me considering I was the IT contact) LONG after Lou split. You claimed you had NO contact with Lou, that is funny, I see (and have delivered these reports to authorities) that state otherwise.

It's a shame out of ALL the people involved with this company - You. like Lou come after me. Mr. Public himself. The one that is daily talking to trustee's, the press, former clients, current posters on these forums and the prisons. Who do you think GOT the mug shots and posted them up here. Hell, who do you think took the picture that the Times and chattanoogan.com regularly use.. ME! I have put my entire privacy out there for anyone to pick at. ALL of it. ALL details of my time with this company, my cars, my phone numbers.

Yet, you still hide behind your screen name of "self presumed royalty." You make me sick, and as most people on these forums know, I DON'T talk like this. You are no queen, technically, wouldn't Pam be queen? You were more like.. "Call Girl."

You are just like Lou, - Come after the one that has brought the pimple to a head. You pray right now Joy that in my 3 gigs of external hard drive space dedicated to all of the information I have gathered here that I don't find that one piece of dirt that confirms what many of us know. Can you say conspirator? Unlike you I don't type conjecture, only what I know.) - Except for the "Lou drinking charges" which I quickly retracted and apologized for.

Since people have requested your picture, and you can't seem to leave my life well enough alone, I will gladly honor that request now - Heck, even have a few from Lou's old private stash, cellulite and all.

I will remain vigilant here, and my personal life will remain public here as I have made it. Because I will not rest, until every individual I have spoken to time and again has some peace back in their lives.

Hell, the fact you keep attacking me, is nothing more than a compliment. You know I trashed your gravy train....

Still pissed that Lou loved Pam more than you Joy?

(For everyone else, I so deeply apologize. I don't believe any of us are in proper character these days. And for anyone I have offended with my words, I do sincerely ask your forgiveness.)

Shawn

Element

Shawn,

To insult an innocent and unborn child is shameful and disgusting no matter how angry you are at the mother. Your apology means absolutely nothing when you stoop that low. You have been known to talk like this before but only to women.

ShawnCas

Point taken, at least on one part... You are absolutely right, and it is edited.

Forexgurl

Bravo, Shawn. Bravo. I applaud you for putting that foul woman in her place. Please, share the photograph of the adulterous "call girl" so the world can know her face. I would if I had one to share.

trademan83

Show of hands....How many think Lou actually LOVED either one of them?
Sociopaths are incapable of feeling that emotion!

Forex Bull Shit

Queen/Joy is this who Lou gave $665,000.00 PLUS?

Show us the photo Shawn. I want to see this Queen Bee.
That has posted some mighty powerful words on here,about others.
And all the time she is sitting on her throne.



The agent said $665,000 in investor funds were placed in a Spartanburg bank. Joy Terry, Rivas' personal assistant and girlfriend, was allowed access to one of the accounts at the bank. Spending out of the account included $108,328 at Century BMW, $94,000 at Wakefield Buick, over $15,000 at Circuit City and over $4,000 for a pool table. Checks for cash and petty cash written by Joy Terry totaled over $158,000.

A question,
Has she turned over the cars,money,house to the courts?