Alleged Diversity Capital "Ponzi scheme" used Mexico's soccer personalities to dupe U.S. and Mexican investors

By Hiroshi Takahashi
CNNExpansion.com

The prestige of the Atlas soccer club of Guadalajara and renowned coach Enrique "Ojitos" Meza prompted hundreds of investors to give their savings to Diversity Capital, a conglomerate of companies, two San Diego men and and a Mexican before they were charged last summer with committing a $14 million fraud.

The promise of extraordinary returns, bolstered with images of "Ojitos" Meza and former soccer player Omar Blanco and ads linked to the national soccer league were used to steal the life savings of hundreds of U.S. and Mexican citizens.

"Many people lost a lot of money," said Keith L. Miller, a Boston lawyer representing many Diversity Capital victims. "Many sold their houses to invest. Now they have debts, and many have no home and no money to get out of the problem."

On July 29, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that it had charged two individuals from San Diego and one from Mexico and their four Southern California entities with securities fraud for operating a Ponzi-like investment scheme that spanned the U.S.-Mexico border in attracting investors.

According to the SEC's press release, Diversity, the related companies and Damian Meneses, 37, Edward Lantz Ferguson, 37, and Juel S. Ley Jr. promised investors guraranteed returns based on profits from foreign currency trading.

In fact, the agency said, the defendants used investor funds to pay other investors' returns, for their own personal use or to send money to other entitites or persons related to them.

Most of those defrauded in the Diversity scheme, said Miller, are Mexicans or Hispanics from Southern California, Texas and Arizona.

The close relationship with the national soccer league and the stars associated with it were a major lure in persuading investors to give up their savings. They were offered the special privilege of meeting and mingling with the soccer stars.

Meza declined to discuss the alleged fraud or his role in it. "It's a very sensitive issue for me," he said.

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