The Ponzi scheme that might pay victims

Montauk, New York

WITH the ocean roaring in front of them, guests relaxed under white umbrellas on a recent summer afternoon here. Stacked against a hill behind them were the villas and cottages of the Panoramic View, the beneficiary of one of the most audacious frauds in Long Island history.

And, it turns out, one heck of an investment. In a Ponzi-meets-The Producers fraud, two brothers-in-law tricked investors out of US$96 million, diverting much of the money, which investors thought was going into managed funds, to prop up the then-faltering Panoramic View.