Referee Cronie
 

He finally got what he deserved. I wonder who else is looking over their shoulder?


Friday, November 30, 2007
Local man admits to Ponzi schemeAtlanta Business Chronicle
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Atlantan Travis E. Correll pleaded guilty Friday to multiple fraud charges related to a $100 million "Ponzi" scheme.

From late 2001 to December 2005, Correll operated an investment program known as "Horizon Establishment," which offered high monthly rates of return to investors. Correll lied and said he would invest their principal in high-yield programs with foreign banks, which were regulated differently than United States financial institutions and could pay extraordinarily generous returns.

Correll promised investors a monthly return on their investments of between 4 percent and 8 percent, and ultimately he refunded their invested principal. In less than five years, he took in more than $100 million in investment money from private investors.

Almost from the beginning, Correll operated Horizon as a Ponzi scheme, using investment money received from later investors to pay substantial returns to some of the early investors. Federal investigators estimate Correll recirculated $71 million to investors, keeping about $29 million.

But the money was never invested with any foreign banks and Correll used much of the money for his own business and personal expenses.

Correll will be sentenced Feb. 6. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.

"This defendant is yet another criminal who used a Ponzi scheme to scam millions from investors who thought they were making valid investments," said U.S. Attorney David E. Nahmias. "We continue to warn potential investors to take every step to check out where their hard-earned money is going. Correll will now be going to federal prison."

Yeah - but did he ever fix a point spread? ;)

And what, exactly, does this have to do with officiating, basketball, or sports in general?

He was a former SEC official, and you can see the possible relevence from this article:

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn...c.php?p=351344

I'm not sure I totally agree with the premise of the article, however.

Why - is one broken?

So, the fact that he was a referee at one time makes it relevant? Even though his crime had nothing to do with officiating?

I figured that was all there was. the OP seems to have a habit of following up on the legal troubles of referees.

Patriots-Ravens. I'm pretty sure that spread was broke.

Here's a quote from the article:

The problem for college basketball is that if game officials -- beyond Correll -- were involved in this circumstance at any level, and if it is determined to be illicit, the integrity of the sport could be called into question. Even if an official were considered simply to be an investor, his involvement would indicate an absence either of integrity or intelligence. Neither would reflect well on the game.


Substitute the word "politicians" for "officials" and it would have some validity.

That's a pretty harsh way of putting it by a highly intelligent, holier than thou, never made a mistake sportswriter. If he and his colleagues made bad personal decisions, should that call into question the integrity of his paper? After all, the members of the media do far more than anyone to color the public's perception of events and public opinion. Perhaps personal considerations have led to a certain slant in coverage. I guarantee that's happened far more than sports officials impacting a game based on aspects of their personal lives.

Let me see if I have this straight. An official may have been duped into investing in an illegal scheme. Therefore, he doesn't know how to correctly call traveling.

Yeah - that makes sense.

I guess to be a sportswriter, you have to be dumber than a fifth grader, or Billy Packer. :rolleyes:

From what I've heard there were a lot of officials that made investments with Correll. I've heard of some big named officials losing a lot of money but of course I'm not going to name them on here.

I'll bet Correll's favorite pregame advice was "Trust your partner". :p

And especially this particular situation, and the SEC. Makes one wonder, eh?

Not really. :rolleyes: