Right here in Washington, DC, under the radar of regulators and law enforcement, Garfield Taylor and friends stole $30 million over the past five years from 130 hardworking and hardly wealthy local individuals. To make matters worse, Mr. Taylor foisted his fraud on a charitable foundation focusing on children’s issues and a Baptist Church.
How do these people live with themselves?
The pitch was hardly unique. “Absolute security and — oh yes — a healthy 20% return. Impossible? Nah, not if it’s all just a scam.”
So as usual the SEC goes after the “lowest-hanging fruit,” in this case Mr. Taylor and his confederates. But what about those entities and individuals who made it all happen? The indispensible bankers and brokers who provided Taylor with access to, and trading authority over customer accounts? I don’t see them in the Complaint.
Like those 3 monkeys: “They neither saw, heard, or smelled ANYTHING.” I don’t buy it. We encourage the SEC to look hard at the confederates, the aiders and abettors and essentially the facilitators of this fraud that made it all possible.