Pennsylvania Couple Goes Full Bernie Madoff, Ponzi Schemes Millions From Multiple Fraternities
Pennsylvania man Albert Fisher has been sentenced to 3 years of house arrest for his role in stealing millions of dollars from Lehigh University fraternities while employed as their “fraternity manager” through his company Fraternity Management Association.
From The Morning Call:
Founded in 1967, the company collected room and board fees from Lehigh University fraternity and sorority members and managed services for their houses. When it collapsed after years of mismanagement and theft in the middle of the spring 2014 semester, students, their families and the university scrambled to find replacements.
“The fraud that you perpetrated spanned multiple years and the money you stole reached into the millions of dollars,” Leeson said. “The breach of trust those students placed in you was total and complete.”
The total loss to the fraternities, sororities, the university and the U.S. government, in the form of unpaid taxes, was nearly $2.5 million, which Fisher will also be required to repay.
Prosecutors said Fisher and his late wife, Elizabeth Fisher, stole from Fraternity Management to support an opulent lifestyle by paying themselves exorbitant salaries and using Fraternity Management’s accounts to pay credit card bills for luxury department stores, clothing, furniture and travel, including a cruise.
I don’t blame the Fishers. Ponzi schemers gonna scheme. I know this isn’t really a Ponzi scheme; it’s moreso embezzlement. But I love the term “Ponzi scheme,” so I’m going to call it a Ponzi scheme. Imagine this: you have 40 years left to live. Would you rather spend all 40 of them living the life of a commoner — peeling potatoes and eating porridge and tending to the herd — or 20 of them living like a fucking king until you get caught, then 20 more with the dope ass title “Ponzi schemer” until you die a Ponzi schemer? When you have the opportunity to Ponzi scheme, you Ponzi scheme every damn time.
Not sure how the fraternities didn’t see through this from the start; “Fraternity Management Association” is the most Ponzi scheme name ever. Oh wait, now I know how they didn’t see through it: it was probably just a rotating bunch of different idiot 19-year-old finance majors handling all that money all those years. Gotta love the fraternity system..
[via The Morning Call]
Image via Shutterstock
Stay scheminnnn
9 years ago at 12:11 pmThis is the least of Lehigh’s problems. Lehigh IFC is starting a greek purge and is shutting down houses and pledging based on rumors. They went into houses and searched for signs of hazing and breathalyzed kids across campus. Absolute bullshit
9 years ago at 12:16 pmOne of our sister chapters fell victim to the lehigh witch hunt. When the boys left for spring break a few years ago, the university went into their house while they were away and found a pledge master booklet. Their charter was yanked before you could say ‘friendship morality and literature.’
9 years ago at 12:23 pmDphi? Yeah they got plowed by the school for that, everybody here thought it was so dumb. There were a few clear hazing things in it, but most of the things in the book were stuff like “pledges are required to wear a tie and be clean shaven for meetings”.
9 years ago at 2:29 pmI’m told Lehigh has some notoriously hard hazing. Any merit to that?
9 years ago at 3:01 pmHonestly it’s time to stop worrying about the repercussions and go after these schools. They are already using rumors and whispers to raid houses. They did the same thing to my fraternity, and we spent a lot of time pouring over the handbooks and old court cases. Eventually we sued the school and won, and they’ve backed off quite a bit at least from us. But if they are already going to get you for a rumor and kick you off, might as well take a stand and tell them they can try come and try and take it, but only when we have exhausted every last possible resource.
9 years ago at 4:44 pmNah I wouldn’t really say that. There’s a few houses out of the 20 that do “hardcore” hazing, but most are just a huge time commitment and sleep deprivation.
9 years ago at 11:54 amLehigh University sounds like one of the absolute worst schools in America to be a member of the Greek community at.
9 years ago at 12:20 pmDo some research
9 years ago at 12:34 pmNever go full Madoff.
9 years ago at 12:33 pmFun fact, his “late” wife killed herself when they both got caught rather than facing the consequences.
9 years ago at 2:29 pm