Our Own Little Trio Of Bernie Madoffs

Isn't he special?:

For nine luxurious days, 26-year-old Christopher J. Warren lived like a king, jet-setting around the world on a private plane, taking limousines to palatial hotels and carrying possibly millions in cash and gold with him.

The Sacramento businessman hop-scotched from Las Vegas to Ireland to a luxury resort on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea in Lebanon, and then back to North America, where he landed in Toronto.

The fantasy life ended Tuesday night on the Peace Bridge, which connects Buffalo with Fort Erie, Ontario.

It was there that Warren, who had taken a taxi from Toronto, was met by federal officers. Agents had been tracking his travels since he fled a federal probe of what authorities say was one of the nation's largest real estate frauds.

When he was nabbed, authorities said, Warren had $70,000 in a shoe, $5,800 worth of platinum, phony passports and plenty of stories to tell his cellmates while he awaits trial.

"He was a man of style and means, all of it stolen," acting U.S. Attorney Larry Brown said Wednesday in Sacramento.

Warren was one of three fugitives under scrutiny in a federal probe of Roseville-based Loomis Wealth Solutions, which authorities say was a front for a Ponzi scheme that spread over five states and cost investors at least $100 million.

All three fled the country as federal investigators began to close in.

...Warren apparently had more expensive tastes than Cavell. Authorities say he chartered a private jet in Las Vegas that day, paying $156,000 in cash, and arrived at the plane at McCarran International Airport in a stretch limousine.

He ordered the crew to fly him to Shannon, Ireland, where they stayed a few hours for refueling while the crew rested.

Then they took to the skies again, headed for Beirut. En route, Warren, who was traveling under the name Mark Andrew Seagrave, boasted to the crew that he was carrying $5 million worth of gold with him and showed them some gold, authorities said.

When the plane landed in Beirut, it was met by a squad of armed guards, who escorted Warren by vehicle to the five-star resort in Kaslick-Jounieh.

Warren stayed there for five days, authorities said. Law enforcement agents had been tracking him, but FBI agents who showed up at the resort Monday just missed him, finding some personal belongings and a phony ID he had left behind in the room as he fled.

On Tuesday, Warren flew into Toronto, although federal authorities would not divulge whether he flew in a private jet or commercially. From there, he took a taxi for the 100-mile drive to Buffalo, where his odyssey ended in the hands of U.S. border officers.

And this makes interesting reading too: the Poor Dad blog, written by an investor - a fleeced investor, apparently - who wanted to document his journey to wealth, and who is still waiting for Loomis Wealth Solutions to reimburse him for the mortgage payments he was forced to make.