Behold Perhaps The Most Brazenly Incredible Investment Scam In History

Dear readers: There are damn-nigh undetectable scams. There are the sneaky ones, with claims that seem a bit too good to be true but with just enough trappings to make the claims believable. Then there is the whole universe of brow-raisers, head-slappers, whoppers; the incredible, the astounding, the chutzpah-laden, the literally unbelievable; in all shapes and sizes from the miniscule to the Madoffian.

And then, friends, on a completely different order of magnitude, at least in respect of sheer gall and subsequent credulousness (and, of course, at the moment allegedly), there is this one:

While running Money Magnet Platinum Membership Initiative LLC, [Lakenya] Hopkins promised astronomical — and unrealistic — rates of returns on investments…. Hopkins claimed to investors she would get them $8,000 in monthly returns for every $1,000 they invested by pooling the money and putting it into a hedge fund that guaranteed a 3-5% daily returns, the feds alleged.

Of course, since such daily returns don’t exist, Hopkins allegedly chose to invest it in herself and, of course, crypto.

In November 2020, she used about $85,000 from investors to put down a year’s worth of rent on a Manhattan home, prosecutors said in an indictment. She also used some of the funds on travel and to buy cryptocurrency for her own benefit, the complaint states.

NYC woman embezzled nearly $300K to rent swanky apartment: feds [N.Y. Post]

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