The Smiths were swindled into investing their money into Bill’s company; instead of generating revenue, the funds were used to finance Bill’s personal extravagances.
swindle
Definition
To cheat a person out of money or property through fraud or deceit.
Definition from Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary
Definition provided by Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary.
August 19, 2010, 5:25 pm
“United States v. Rude, 88 F.3d 1538 (9th Cir.1996), provides a similar example. The defendants in that case used an investment swindle to induce a Hawaii nonprofit called Unity House to wire $10 million to a Swiss bank account, opened in its name, over which the defendants had power of attorney. Id. at 1542. Then they wired the funds to their own account in the United States, and later wired $650,000 of the principal back to the victim, falsely representing it as return on the investment. Id. They were charged and convicted of wire fraud, not for the initial transfer to Switzerland, but for the subsequent transfers…. The Ninth Circuit affirmed.” J. McConnell, United States v. Redcorn, 528 F.3d 727, 740-741 (10th Cir. 2008).