Ponzi scheme

SALT LAKE CITY — Former Weber County swindler Wayne Ogden pleaded guilty Friday to charges from his second federal fraud case.

A sentencing hearing is set for Aug. 15 before U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart.

The sentencing will also cover the charges from Ogden’s February jury conviction in the same federal courthouse on another fraud conviction. Unique to that 2002 real estate scam, which investigators said turned into a Ponzi scheme, was Ogden’s claim that he was working undercover for federal regulators.

SALT LAKE CITY — The owner of the title company through which Wayne Ogden’s allegedly ill-gotten gains flowed took the stand Monday, but did not leave unscathed.

Billie Crocker, owner of City Title, testified most of the day to the long trail of transactions Ogden initiated in what federal regulators call a Ponzi scheme disguised as a real estate proposal. The U.S. Attorney’s Office has granted Crocker immunity from prosecution, meaning her testimony can’t be used against her.

SALT LAKE CITY — The courtroom intrigue continues as Weber County’s Wayne Ogden claims he was working undercover when he concocted the fraud case he is now charged with in federal court.

He was running his own private sting on behalf of the Drug Enforcement Administration, according to Ogden’s defense team, a claim it presented during opening arguments of Ogden’s three-week fraud trial.

And he not only worked with the DEA, but the FBI, federal housing regulators and state securities investigators as well, the team says.

SALT LAKE CITY — Five years in the making, Wayne Ogden’s trial on his second round of fraud charges was scheduled to begin today in federal court.

NEW YORK — The younger brother of disgraced financier Bernard Madoff — the loyal No. 2 at an investment firm that fronted a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme — pleaded guilty Friday, agreeing to serve 10 years in prison and saying he was "in total shock" when he learned of the fraud.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein said his downtown Fort Lauderdale law firm maintained a condo across the street where he and his law partners would have sex with prostitutes and then come back to work, according to transcripts of his testimony that were unsealed Wednesday.

SALT LAKE CITY -- A San Diego investment manager has been arrested on charges of spending millions of dollars of his clients' money on personal expenses.