Embryo Transfer Ponzi Scheme

(Topeka, Kansas) Anyone who knows what a Ponzi scheme is doesn't have to have a regulator identify it. Unfortunately, the writer of this report appears to think that a regulator must call a scam a Ponzi scheme before it actually is one.

A Topeka area man pleaded no contest to 36 felony charges stemming from a fictitious $1.3 million cattle embryo transfer program that regulators called a Ponzi scheme.

State officials said Donald G. Atteberry, 52 of Berryton, Kan., had promised investors 5 percent to 15 percent returns in six months. Their money was supposed to be used to freeze cattle embryos that would be shipped to Europe.

Instead, Atteberry paid some investors returns by using money from new investors, which regulators describe as a Ponzi scheme. The money also financed Atteberry's personal expenses, including gambling at casinos, the state said.

Therefore, we have a fraudulent investment scheme involving payout of high returns to investors out of the money paid in by subsequent investors. That's the definition of a Ponzi scheme, whether a regulator deems it so or not.

Atteberry faces a possible 86 months in prison, hundreds of thousands in fines and almost $1 million in restitution.