The personal assets of Monroe L. Beachy, a 77-year-old Amish man, included a horse, buggy and harness. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, his skills included financial fraud.
Beachy spent a quarter-century raising $33 million from more than 2,600 investors, the overwhelming majority of them fellow members of the Amish community, which often shuns modern conveniences such as automobiles.
But Beachy’s investment approach allegedly had more in common with the timeless methods of Charles Ponzi and Bernard Madoff than with the sheltered village of Sugarcreek, Ohio, where he lived. When the SEC charged him with fraud on Tuesday, it said he had lost nearly half of his investors’ money.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 17, 2011; 12:56 AM
Thursday, February 17, 2011; 12:56 AM
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My 52 Weeks of Worship Project 
say it aint so!
Posted by suzette | February 20, 2011, 8:57 amIt seems that there should be a special brand of hell that shold befall people who rip off their own…this reminds me of the shenanigans effectuated by Jack Abramoff, an Orthodox Jew, who left a number of highly prominent Jewish charities and institutions in its wake…It’s a whole new low in betrayal and you wonder if the natural insulation that these spiritual communities have offered in the past is still present…
Posted by Idara | February 20, 2011, 8:57 am