Thanks to the SEC investigation and the minutes that accompanied the temporary restraining order, we know know more about the behind the scenes operations over at NASI. Of course, the SEC is not finished investigating, so this information is subject to change.
But, I thought I’d go through the order and break out the interesting elements.
- Since 2013, NASI raised $123 million in investor funds.
- ATM revenue accounted for less than 2% of NASI’s actual revenue.
- NASI operated like a typical Ponzi, using new investor funds to pay the guaranteed return of 20% on the old investments.
- There were three NASI-affiliated companies involved with this scam, and Edward Wishner was the registered agent of all three. They were Oasis Studio Rentals, LLC., Oasis Studio Rentals #2, LLC., and Oasis Studio Rentals #3, LLC.
- NASI would charge $12k per ATM contract, the contracts ran for ten years. At the end of the ten years, the investor could have their ATM delivered to them, get a full refund of their initial investment or auto-renew the contract for three years. In the complaint, it stated that some investors were charged $19k for an ATM contract.
- The contract prohibited the investor from contacting the locations where the ATM was installed.
- NASI was not registered with the SEC for selling securities. But, per an SEC filing from 1998, ATM Holdings owned all the shares in NASI. ATM Holdings was another Joel/Ed company. The filing was revoked in 2007 for failing to file SEC reports and its corporate name with the state was revoked that same year.
- One investor asked how to audit the monthly revenue and was told that their check was their audit.
- NASI’s records listed more than 31k ATMs. Unfortunately, settlement reports only show 235 ATMs. NASI’s records also claim that they have 673 ATMs at Casey’s Convenience Mart locations, but it appears that Casey’s doesn’t have that many ATMs, and the ones they do have are owned by MobileMoney, a company unrelated to NASI.
- Of the fabled Casey’s ATM locations, one was sold to investors five times,with two within days of each other.
- Between April and June, about $23.7 million was deposited into NASI’s accounts. Almost $391k of that was ATM revenue, and nearly $18.5 million was new investor funds. During this same period, NASI paid out nearly $23.5 million to investors. It’s quite obvious that $391k in ATM revenue didn’t cover the $23.5 million going out, so new investor funds had to have been used to pay out old investments.
- It appears that NASI improperly transferred funds to those Oasis companies. From what I gathered, NASI would loan money to Oasis, then write off the debt later.
- In August, NASI bounced $3 million in checks to investors and had only $200k in the bank.
- They then opened new bank accounts at a different bank. About $3.8 million was deposited, of which $52k was ATM revenue and $3.36 million came from new investors. NASI paid out about $2 million to existing investors.
- A review of NASIs accounts indicate that since 2013 Edward Wishner withdrew almost $793.5k and Joel Gillis withdrew almost $208k from the Oasis accounts.
- Edward Wishner withdrew almost $100k in NASI funds for himself at the beginning of September, as NASI was collapsing.
Hopefully I didn’t miss anything.
How many of this group is a resident of Nevada and were referred by a Nevada person to this apparent “fraudulent investment”. I am wondering if someone here received financial or “other” compensation for the referral of his/her clients to this investment. FYI we were investors and sort of got a “hard court press” on the investment.
Hardly any people claiming to be investors have given away that much of their location, so I can’t say how many. But back in January of 2014, a poster stated:
My client also receives compensation for binging new investors into the pool. These payments, paid in cash, are not reportable to the IRS because the “the tax has already been paid on these disbursements.” They are a significant proportion of his annual income.
My boss and some of his family members have been affected by this Ponzi, and I’m an avid watcher of American Greed: Scams, Scoundrels and Suckers. I just can’t believe that my boss was taken in by this scam because he’s quite an intelligent person; attorney, real estate developer and wealth management guru. I guess the 20% return on an investment must have been too good to pass up. As an astute business woman myself, the red flag that would have sent me running to the hills would have been the fact that I couldn’t contact the place where my ATM was being housed. I’m a person of transparency when it comes to my money and I don’t like to play games when it comes to my hard earned cash. So if I invested my money into a tangible item such as an ATM, I’d better be able to contact the location to be assured that it is, in fact, in working order and everything is on the up and up.
Additionally, when will people ever learn, A 20% RETURN ON YOUR INVESTMENT IS NOT TYPICAL, I don’t care how long the company has been in business, those returns are just unheard of and if you look at our financial market, the returns for most investments are very conservative, running around 8% OR SO!!!
Most of the times when I watch American Greed, I feel sorry for the victims of the scam but then reality sets in because not only are the people that are perpetuating the scam greedy, so are those that are looking for high returns on an investment that’s just not substantiated. We have to not only do our research on the company that we’re looking to do business with, but also the market in which it operates in.
wow…you are soo smart…I am unimpressed by your by you’re lack of compassion and empathy for your boss and his family members. Perhaps he was informed about this by a good and trusted friend or colleague who had invested in this unfortunate scam. I am sure he is mad at himself now…but then as they say..’hindsight’ is always 20/20. But good for you Jedon..you never would have entered into an investment like this right? You should show you loyal post to your boss…..make him feel even worse……but be careful my friend…as the Bible says ‘Pride cometh before a fall’. And apparently.. from your self righteous post.. you have no shortage of pride!
What’s the problem cheryl, you were taken too? Before YOU and “your self righteousness” begin to quote the bible to me, you probably should take a step back. You don’t know my boss nor his ways and for the sake of maintaining my job, I’ll keep my further opinions to myself. Regardless of WHO brought him into the business, if certain things don’t jive, then it’s probably not legitimate. And as I previously stated, if the returns that are being promised to you are not standard, THEN ITS PROBABLY NOT LEGITIMATE!!
Your facetious comment of me being self righteous is just that… A JOKE!!! It kills me how people can’t accept the truth or reality but yet wants someone to pat them on their back and say everything will be ok, it’s not your fault. Please!!!
Lack of compassion, well Hunn that’s your opinion and your entitled to it, but once again you don’t know the conversations that I’ve had with my boss nor how it’s affected other family members that HE BROUGHT IN!!! So my dear, before you even THINK of quoting the bible to me as if you’re a minister over your own flock of followers and before you even THINK of passing judgement on me or anyone else, you should ask yourself, is this person right? Do I KNOW this person or DO I EVEN UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS PERSON IS SAYING? And from your reply, it’s clear you have no idea what I was saying, therefore after THIS reply, I’ll defer from replying to any other comments that you may have in the future because clearly sweetheart you are CLUELESS!!! #ImDone