Silverleaf Financial Fraud

"They got a name for people like you" - Silverleaf Financial Fraud in Utah Explained.

Four years ago, Val Southwick - the person some call the Bernie Madoff of Utah con artists - made off with the biggest fraud plan in Utah history. He now sits in state prison, serving nine consecutive life sentences, but the fraud landscape may have remained the same in Utah even after his trial and conviction.

For many Utah law enforcement officials, in fact, the lessons of Southwick's fraud conviction and the works of others haven’t been learned. When the economy is good, after all, investors are plenty and the economy soars, prompting fraudulent investment deals to fly under the radar.

Salt Lake's Unique Fraud Ties

Interestingly, Salt Lake City is one of the top five Ponzi scheme hot spots in the country, coupled with Los Angeles, Dallas, New York, and San Francisco - placing Salt Lake in a very undesired but major metropolitan ranking for financial fraud. Additionally, with more than $2 billion in fraud losses reported in 2010, given Salt Lake City's small stature, the financial fraud outlook in the city may be worse than others on a per capita basis.

But what makes Utah such a fertile breeding ground for fraudsters, anyways? Some people think that Utah priding itself on being a small, connected community may actually hurt it when it comes to con artists and financial fraudsters; that is, Utahns tend to fall into schemes presented as friendships and other help from seemingly trusted people. With tight social networks, friendly church congregations, and neighborhoods where everybody says hello, Utah may make for easy pickings by con men.

Conning Ourselves

Really good con artists don't rely on high-pressure sales tactics or any other issue to con you; in fact, the best con artists help you con yourself by giving you the appearance of their expertise, success, and opportunity. From there, the best con artists can spin investments to make you feel as though it were your idea to invest with them in the first place, taking the pressure off and bringing you into the fold in a no-pressure way that works to their advantage.

Vet Your Investments And Know Your Rights!

First and foremost, if you think about investing with anybody, it's imperative that you do your research. Know exactly what you are getting into, and what the investment looks like from your perspective. The Utah Division of Securities and the FBI both post a significant amount of information about shoddy investments, too.

There are two other major rules of investing to live by: never put all of your money into one investment, and never invest more than you can afford to lose. If you can live by both of those rules, and do your research on individual investments and their opportunities, you can do pretty well with investing and remaining safe. Shane Baldwin Fraud and Silverleaf Financial Fraud.

While the laws surrounding investments can be murky, there are things you can do when it comes to investing and staying safe, including attending Utah's Fraud College, held annually in February of each year, to learn more about fraudulent investments and staying safe.  By doing your due diligence before investing, and checking to ensure your investments are wise and well thought-out, you can avoid the headache, heartache and loss down the road.

For more info about Shane Baldwin and Silverleaf Financial visit http://www.shane-baldwin.com