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Ponzi Pigeon King Officially Dead

The Better Farming Newspaper reports that:

"PKI (Pigeon King Inc) is dead in the water, according to a notice from Galbraith dated June 17. The notice, distributed to contract growers, suppliers and holding barn operators, says he has handed his business over to a bankruptcy trustee. Galbraith couldn't be reached for comment."

This is not a surprise, although it make surprise a few that thought they knew Arlan Galbraith that in the days before declaring bankruptcy, Galbraith stung a few more farmers to the tune of $100,000.

Pigeon King was a novel Ponzi scheme because the actual product -pigeons- could be seen by all. I had written a 5 part article about Pigeon King earlier, What is New in Family Farming,Why Being a Sucker Seems so Right , Pigeon King and Testimonials, How will the Pigeon King Scheme End?, How to Help Yourself

That alchemy that turned ordinary pigeons into $50 breeders was Arlan's own invention.

What is interesting here is why the institutions who are traditionally involved with preventing these types of crimes remained silent until the fall?

According to Rose Simone of the Kitchener Record,

"Several states, including Iowa, Washington and South Dakota, took steps to block the Waterloo company, telling Galbraith he couldn't operate unless he could produce proof he was selling a viable business.

The Iowa Attorney General's office was investigating allegations Galbraith was running a pyramid or Ponzi scheme with no apparent end-market for the birds except selling baby pigeons to more breeders."

These State actions were taken because Arlan Galbraith had not taken the time to register in these states as a business opportunity seller. He did have had to prove that "he was selling a viable business" in order to complete the registration.

Over at the Discover Vancouver forum, which oddly enough became the longest running thread about this Ponzi scheme, the tradition of attacking the messengers, Dave Thornton and Michael Grenier, continued. Some people think that Dave, Michael and Crimebustersnow should be slagged for their tenacity in uncovering this fraud.

I understand that they are now working on XL Results, which has a toehold in Canada.

The unfortunate part of this scheme is that the individuals in the Amish and Hutterite communities that saw through this scam were unable to convince their friends and neighbours why this was a fraud.

Many close knit communities simply do not have the educational resources to protect themselves against affinity frauds -what ever the form of the fraud takes.

The leaders of these communities must come to the realization that they have vulnerabilities - which is also part of their cohesive strength- which leaves them open to affinity frauds.

These collective protection schemes are too important to be left to other institutions.

Awareness begins at home.

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Full post as published by Misleading Advertising Law on June 23, 2008 (boomark / email).