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Centennial Couple Accused In Huge Ponzi Scheme

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Nov 17, 2009 7:52 pm US/Mountain

Centennial Couple Accused In Huge Ponzi Scheme

Reporting
Shaun Boyd
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (CBS4/AP) ― Federal regulators have accused four people and two companies of fraud in an alleged $30 million Ponzi scheme that lured 300 investors nationwide in purported eco-friendly investments.

The Securities and Exchange Commission alleges Wayde McKelvy and Donna McKelvy, who were married, used their Centennial-based company Speed of Wealth to find investors for Pennsylvania-based Mantria Corp.

The SEC filed a complaint in federal court Monday in Denver alleging the McKelvys and Mantria executives Troy Wragg and Amanda Knorr of Philadelphia overstated Mantria's successes to lure investors.

Dee Holl of Centennial has lost her mother, her job and now possibly all of her retirement savings. She's one of the investors, many of them retirees in Colorado, who believed in an environmental initiative that the government says was bogus.

"It said that it was the new Yahoo and next year they hoped to go public and we would become very wealthy," Holl said.

Holl was nearing retirement and saw her investments shrinking. She wanted an alternative and Wade McKelvy offered her one.

On his Web site McKelvy solicited investors for Mantria, advertising it as the world's leading producer of biochar, a charcoal substitute made from organic waste. McKelvy urged investors to liquidate traditional investments and put all their money into Mantria, promising returns of hundreds of percent.

"I invested close to $200,000," Holl said. "It's ironic because we talked about Bernie Madoff and scam and we had specific Webinars and teleconferences to assure us this was not Ponzi at all.

"He became a millionaire while I become penniless and there are just no words to describe how I feel about that. It wiped away my retirement."

Holl said McKelvy not only talked a good talk but produced spread sheets and claimed to have factories for biochar, which investigators say he never did sell. She says McKelvy also tossed around some big names, including John Elway, who she says spoke at one of his seminars.

Wragg and Knorr didn't return a phone message seeking comment. Donna McKelvy's voice mail wasn't accepting messages.

Wayde McKelvy's phone number wasn't listed.

(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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