“Washington Republicans increased the debt $1.9 trillion and have their eyes on cutting Medicare and Social Security. Meanwhile, Diane Harkey is busy trying to explain her record of profiting from a Ponzi scheme to bilk seniors of their life savings. There is only one candidate California seniors can count on to protect their retirement security and that’s Mike Levin.” – DCCC spokesperson Drew Godinich
KEY BACKGROUND:
Point Center Financial – “Ponzi Scheme” That Bilked Seniors Out Of Their Savings
- Jury found Point Center Financial & Dan Harkey liable for $10 million in damages for “malice, oppression, or fraud” in breach of fiduciary duty.
- Court found Point Center Financial & Dan Harkey liable for elder abuse and deceptive business practices described by plaintiffs as a “Ponzi scheme”.
- Lawsuit claimed many of the investors were retirees who gave their life savings for high-risk projects.
Diane Harkey Was Inextricably Linked To Point Center Financial, Used Profits To Fund Her Political Campaigns
- Diane Harkey benefitted from the firm.
- Diane Harkey was a corporate officer and investor in the firm.
- Diane Harkey sued the victims of her family’s firm for damages.
- Earnings from the firm financed her political campaigns.
- Harkey indicated that her political spending included money from husband’s earnings through point center financial.
- Harkey, on the source of her political spending: “Sometimes it was his income. Sometimes it’s both of our incomes.”
- Lawsuit alleged Dan Harkey “fraudulently transferred investors’ funds … to his wife Diane Harkey for her use in advancing her political career.”
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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Diane Harkey Campaigns for Congress on Ethics Platform While Her Husband is Labeled a Swindler
August 2, 2018 | OC Weekly
The California Court of Appeal has affirmed a multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme judgment against the husband of Orange County Republican congressional candidate Diane Harkey, who is hoping to defeat her Democratic Party opponent Mike Levin in November’s general election.
Dan Harkey had urged the appellate panel to overturn the jury’s findings that he breached his fiduciary duties, committed financial elder abuse and flagrantly violated agreements with numerous investors who’d believed his fraudulent claims.
In a 25-page, July 30 ruling, justices Richard Aronson, Eileen Moore and Richard Fybel rejected Harkey’s appeal, declaring that “substantial evidence supports the jury’s and the trial court’s conclusions that he repeatedly made “illusory” statements to pitched investors.
[…]
Levin, a 39-year-old San Juan Capistrano residence who this week won the endorsement of former President Barack Obama, is advocating an anti-Donald Trump agenda that includes accelerating sustainable energy policies, increasing public disclosure of politicians’ behind the scenes maneuverings, boosting education spending, advancing women’s rights and improving healthcare.
In the appellate case, Harkey made “flawed” arguments about his innocence that made “little sense,” according to the state justices.
The justices determined that Orange County Superior Court judge Steven L. Perk “reasonably” found that Harkey “breached [his] companies’ operating agreements and breached their respective duties of good faith in full disclosure to the plaintiffs. . . Harkey looted the plaintiffs’ investment funds by running a Ponzi scheme to amass fees in their own interest on loans with only a pretense of underwriting and sham rollover loans violating operating agreements.”
Issa, the wealthiest member of Congress, backed out of a re-election campaign after concluding he would lose.