Back in about 1983, I heard various patriots talking about an arbitrage program operated by a man from Illinois named Richard Jones. He was supposedly an acclaimed international financier who was tired of what the government and the "big boys" were doing and he wanted to help patriots. Jones' program involved taking people's money and successively rolling it over in some arbitrage scheme which allegedly had a very high rate of return. But this was not his only package; he also had a loan program whereby you could borrow money from some offshore banks at a very low interest rate, and the proceeds of this loan could then be invested in his arbitrage program. In a few years, the investment would pay off the original loan from the offshore bank and you would allegedly end up with a nice stash of cash. To get involved with his project, the dupe was required to invest an initial $4000.
Later, a new third program was started by Jones. He claimed that he had discovered some extremely rich Saudi Arabs who wanted to assist patriots with their battles against the government. These Saudis planned to distribute $10 million to every patriot who got involved with the program. The sale pitch was that you had to give Jones $5000 to show good faith, and then at a designated time, these Saudis would sale their yachts to Panama, and the investors in the program would be flown to Panama, where they would board the Saudis' yachts and be given $10 million each. Of course, the patriot investors had to use about 60% to 75% of the funds given to them to carry out worthy causes and battles. Needless to say, business was very brisk and some of the patriots who fell for the Jones program kept me regularly informed of the forthcoming date when the Saudis would give away these millions. But then again, thiat day always kept being extended month after month and year after year.
Jones died in April, 1986, and his wife stepped into his shoes. But that summer, she was indicted; she went to trial and was convicted, but she fled before being sentenced. After being on the run for 2 years, she was apprehended and sentenced. The below extract is a portion of the decision in her appeal, which explains the facts of this case regarding the Jones loan program. Unfortunately, this decision mentions nothing about the "Saudi project" which apparently was not a part of the case against Bridget.
Extracts from United States v. Jones, 938 F.2d 737 (7th Cir. 1991):
"Bridget C. Jones and her late husband, Richard L. Jones, operated what was termed an advance fee loan program. For a $4,000 fee paid up front, they promised to arrange a $100 million loan for the applicant. From the standpoint of Bridget and Richard Jones the program was quite successful. By April 15, 1986, (the date Richard died) the couple had accumulated more than $10 million from procurement fees received from approximately 4,000 clients who joined their programs. The money generated from this scheme was placed in more than 100 banks located throughout the United States. No taxes were paid on any of the fees received by Mrs. Jones and her husband. Not incidentally, no loans were ever arranged.
"In early 1986, Bridget and Richard Jones learned that the government had been subpoenaing records from their bank accounts. This news prompted them to take steps to move the money in those accounts outside the United States. To accomplish this international transfer of funds Mrs. Jones and her husband sought the assistance of Joan McIntosh and a Swiss banker named Harry Wanke. McIntosh claimed to be in the business of protecting people's money from being taxed. A plan was developed whereby Richard Jones would write checks on all his bank accounts and make them payable to sham corporations. The checks would be given to McIntosh, who would deposit them in a bank account she controlled in Denver, commingling them with other funds in that account. From the Denver account McIntosh would then move the funds to New York where Wanke would deposit them with a bank having a correspondent relationship with Wanke's bank in Zurich, Switzerland. Wanke would then arrange for the funds to be wire-transferred from the New York bank to his Swiss bank. No reporting or disclosure of the actual ownership of the funds was to be made.
"Bridget and Richard Jones had various bank accounts in Bloomington, Illinois, the base of their operations. Prior to his death and consistent with the plan to move the funds out of the country, Richard Jones depleted his bank accounts outside of Bloomington by writing multiple checks in amounts of less than $10,000 payable to dummy corporations. These checks totalled nearly $6 million. In late March and early April of 1986, Mrs. Jones and her husband sent $500,000 of the checks made payable to the sham corporations to McIntosh. On April 12, 1986, Bridget and Richard Jones, McIntosh, Wanke and others met in Chicago. Mrs. Jones and her husband decided that of the $500,000 sent to McIntosh, $200,000 would be used to test the system devised for getting the money to Switzerland. The balance of the $500,000 would be used to establish trusts.
"Three days later Richard Jones died. A week later, a federal grand jury subpoena was served on Mrs. Jones directing her to produce records relating to the loan program. After receiving the subpoena Mrs. Jones directed that the subpoenaed records be removed from her house, microfilmed and then burned. Although she was given immunity for the act of producing the records of the loan program, Mrs. Jones stated that she had no intention of turning the records over to the grand jury.
"During this time, the Internal Revenue Service made two jeopardy assessments against Richard Jones' estate. The first assessment in the sum of $3.8 million was made in middle or late April of 1986. The second assessment for $10.25 million was made in the middle of June of 1986. Bridget Jones received notifications of the levies and was heard repeatedly to say that she wanted to move the money outside the United States to avoid seizure.
"After Richard Jones' death, Bridget Jones assumed sole control over the operations of the advance fee loan program. She also pursued the scheme to move the untaxed money outside the United States to prevent its seizure by the Internal Revenue Service. On May 7, 1986, Mrs. Jones met with McIntosh in Denver, Colorado, and gave McIntosh an additional $239,000. Mrs. Jones directed her to funnel $100,000 to the overseas bank accounts and to retain $139,000 as an escape fund for Mrs. Jones and her family.
"Seven days later on May 14, 1986, Mrs. Jones met with Rupert Henry and Robin Baily in Miami, Florida. The purpose of this meeting was to arrange the transfer of approximately $290,000 out of the country to bank accounts in Panama.
"On May 21, 1986, Mrs. Jones divided the remaining checks written to the dummy corporations into two groups. Mrs. Jones directed that one group of checks totalling $2,841,172.10 be given to Rupert Henry for deposit in the Panamanian bank accounts. The second group of checks, totalling $3,024,627.48 was given to McIntosh for deposit in the Swiss bank accounts.
"The advance fee loan program continued to generate fees. On May 27, 1986, Mrs. Jones received an additional $1 million from the loan program brought in subsequent to her husband's death. Of this income to Mrs. Jones, approximately $800,000 was in the form of checks. Mrs. Jones directed that the checks be converted to cash without the filing of any Currency Transaction Reports with her name on them. However, the transfer of the cash to Panama could not be arranged and Mrs. Jones decided to move the cash outside the United States through McIntosh and Wanke. At Mrs. Jones' direction, $500,000 in cash was given directly to Wanke in New York. Wanke agreed not to disclose Mrs. Jones' identity on any Currency Transaction Reports. Wanke received the $500,000 in cash in New York and was arrested.
"Mrs. Jones was charged with one count of conspiracy in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 371; four counts of wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1343; and one count of obstruction of justice in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1503.
"After trial, the jury found Mrs. Jones guilty on all six counts. The district judge set the case for sentencing and agreed to release Mrs. Jones pending sentencing. Mrs. Jones fled and remained at-large for over two and one-half years. After being apprehended and returned for sentencing, the district judge sentenced her to twenty-five years imprisonment."