Ponzi goes green, SEC in pursuit

Posted Nov 17th 2009 1:20PM by Tom Johansmeyer
Filed under: SEC Filings, Scandals, Green Stocks

How do you know the green finance sector has arrived? Well, it got its first Ponzi scheme! Allegedly.

The SEC filed charges against four people and two companies in a Denver federal court on Monday. Mantria Corp. and its principals, Troy Wragg and Amanada Knorr, stand accused of running raising $122 million from more than 300 investors in what could be a dozen fraudulent offers of securities. Mantria engaged Speed of Wealth LLC, run by Wayde and Donna McKelvy, to dump the cash out of their retirement plans and tap their home equity to "invest" in Mantria, which they said was offering returns ranging from 17% to "hundreds of percent" every year.

"Move at the speed of wealth" was the message given to potential investors online, over the phone and via seminars. Mantria paid Speed of Wealth a commission of 12.5% for the cash it brought into the scheme.

Mantria claimed to be in the business of financing a "carbon negative" housing community in Tennessee and the production of "biochar" -- a substitute for charcoal made from organic waste. Unfortunately, Mantria used later investments to compensate earlier investors with later infusions because it had overstated its performance ... which is where it got into trouble.

Don Hoerl, director of the SEC's Denver office, said in a statement, "The only green these promoters seemed interested in was investors' money.

The McKelvys, Knorr, Wragg, Mantria and Speed of Wealth are being charged with fraud and the unregistered sale of securities. The SEC is trying to win the return of illegal profits, civil fines and the freezing of the defendants' assets.

Tags: Amanada Knorr, clean, Cleantech, Don Hoerl, Donna McKelvy, green, green technology, inthenews, Mantria Corp., Ponzi Scheme, SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission, Speed of Wealth, Troy Wragg, Wayde McKelvy

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

11-18-2009 @ 11:06AM

amedley said...

We are aware of the SEC action in Denver. We deny all the allegations raised by the SEC against Mantria and its principals and we are preparing our defense. We hope to obtain a favorable resolution of this matter. In the interim, we will continue to market our waste-to-energy systems, bio-char and related bio-products and our residential real estate communities. Please contact our Chairman, Troy Wragg, for any further information.

We encourage everyone to see the properties and take a tour through our waste conversion system and see how we are able to convert biomass waste into valuable BioProducts.

11-18-2009 @ 5:28PM

ron asheton said...

Hey Mantria and Speed of Wealth investors, here's one of the socially and ecologically conscious projects your money helped Troy Wragg fund:
http://www.youtube.com/iceblocmusic
Troy Wragg is the white guy who kind of looks like a bullfrog wearing dark glasses, Amanda Knorr is one of the hoochie mamas sitting to the right of him on the couch in da club. Count it!