Joseph S. Forte : Despicable, Greedy Bastard

Uhh huh. You knew it was only a matter of time given the greed factor in this area. The Main Line has it's own Bernie Madoff: Joseph Forte of Broomall.

So Joe, how ya' doing out there? Do you feel good about ripping off all those people and embarrassing your friends and family who will be forever tainted by your actions? Mind you, I don't know you Joe, but then again I don't take my financial advice from those without the proper credentials. Oh now Joe, you're probably saying "Oh Blogga' Puleaze"....but dude, I hope they hang you high for what you have done....And I DO wish the media would stop referring to you as a Main Liner...Broomall is Delaware County, not the Main Line....and seriously, what possessed all these money laden jackasses to entrust monies to a guy with no darn credentials? What is wrong with people? Is greed that strong of an addiction?

Shades of Madoff: Another Ponzi Scheme Emerges
January 8, 2009, 2:08 pm

The government has discovered another long-running Ponzi scheme. This time, however, it totaled $50 million — a mere fraction of Bernard L. Madoff’s purported $50 billion scheme.

Still, the Madoff scandal may have contributed to the unraveling of this latest Ponzi scheme.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission said Thursday that they had brought civil charges against an investment manager in the Philadelphia area, saying he had duped as many as 80 investors into giving him an estimated $50 million since 1995.

According to the complaints, the investment manager, Joseph S. Forte of Broomall, Pa...

Posted on Wed, Jan. 7, 2009
Millions missing at Philadelphia-area charity
By Harold Brubaker and Joseph N. DiStefano
Inquirer Staff Writers

A charitable foundation on the Main Line has lost as much as $15 million entrusted to a self-employed Broomall investment manager, according to one of its trustees.

Joseph S. Forte is the investment manager, and the missing money is inspiring comparisons to the Bernard L. Madoff scandal on Wall Street.

Details emerged late last week and caused a buzz in places ranging from the steps of a church in Wayne to Main Line money-management circles.

A trustee of the Thornton D. & Elizabeth S. Hooper Foundation, which listed $15.22 million in assets under management by Joe Forte L.P. in its latest public filing, said he did not know what had happened to the money.

"It's fair to say that the money is not in the foundation now. I don't know where it is," Bruce H. Hooper said yesterday during an interview at his house in Radnor Township, not far from the famed Ardrossan estate.

Thursday, January 8, 2009
Main Line investor 'confesses' to $10M+ fraud, feds say

From the official statement: "The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced today that it charged Joseph S. Forte of Broomall, Pennsylvania with operating a Ponzi scheme involving approximately $50 million in connection with the unregistered Joseph Forte, L.P. commodity futures pool.

"Forte recently confessed to federal authorities in the wake of the scheme’s collapse. The CFTC’s complaint charges Forte with: solicitation fraud; misappropriation of pool funds; sending customers false account statements; and failing to register with the CFTC as a commodity pool operator.

"In conjunction with the CFTC’s filing, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued a restraining order freezing assets and preserving records...

"The CFTC complaint alleges that from at least February 1995 through present, Forte fraudulently solicited approximately $50 million from dozens of individuals and entities to participate in a commodity futures pool to trade, among other things, S&P 500 stock index futures, foreign currency futures, and metal futures.

CNN:CFTC, SEC Charge Pa. Resident With $50 Million Ponzi Scheme
January 08, 2009: 11:10 AM ET

legalese #1 and legalese #2

Posted on Thu, Jan. 8, 2009
SEC: Forte says he has no money to repay anyone
"His deception was complete," said one investigator of the man who had reported 18.52% to 36.19% annual gains.
By Harold Brubaker
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Federal authorities charged Joseph S. Forte, a Broomall investment manager, with operating a multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme since at least 1995.
Civil charges were brought yesterday in federal court in Philadelphia by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission and by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Forte, 53, obtained an estimated $50 million from as many as 80 investors, reporting annual gains that ranged from 18.52 percent to 36.19 percent, the CFTC and the SEC said.

He confessed to taking $10 million to $12 million for himself and used $15 million to $20 million of investors' money to pay off other investors - the hallmark of a Ponzi scheme, the authorities said.

Forte's latest report to investors, on Sept. 30, claimed that his fund's value was more than $154 million. The actual balance of his trading account was $146,814....Forte, who has never been registered with the SEC, admitted that he misrepresented and falsified Forte L.P.'s trading performance from the beginning, the SEC said.....Forte was in court yesterday without a lawyer. This week he has not returned calls seeking comment...

Welll...sheesh...if it sounds too good to be true, it generally is...and in case y'all want to give him a ringy dingy I found him on Whitepages.com in Broomall.