The Feds have charged a Texas pastor and a financial planner with selling defunct Chinese bonds to elderly investors

pulse

April 6, 2018 3:44 PM

The SEC says Kirbyjon Caldwell and Gregory Smith, a pastor and a financial planner, were scamming elderly people in a fraud involving worthless Chinese bonds.

The SEC has filed a complaint against a pastor and a self-proclaimed financial planner who defrauded 29 mostly elderly people of $3.4 million.
Gregory Smith has been barred from broker deals but allegedly sold old Chinese bonds on the promise of guaranteed high returns.
Kirbyjon Caldwell, a Houston pastor and friend of George W. Bush, claims his innocence.
The bonds in question were issued by the Republic of China, which was overthrown in 1949, making the bonds of no value.

Buyer beware: Don't invest in any old Chinese bonds.

Two men swindled 29 people out of $3.4 million in an investment scam, the SEC claims. Kirbyjon Caldwell — who served as spiritual adviser to presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama — and disgraced financial planner Gregory Smith have been charged for fraud.

The SEC says Caldwell and Smith lured innocent people into investing in old Chinese bonds with no worth, promising large returns. Many of the victims of the alleged fraud are elderly.

The Department of Justice said in a news release that "t

Gregory Alan Smith is described by the SEC as "

ABC KTRK in Houston reported that Caldwell spent his Easter Sunday sermon discussing his case and proclaiming his innocence.

"," Caldwell told his churchgoers. "

pulse