Investment scam affects 1,800 Americans

William Miller, 88, holds a old leather wallet, a gift from the Heath Financial Services, as he reflects on what could have been a cozy retirement at his home in La Habra, Calif., the US, Feb. 19, 2008.

Miller is among 1,800 people spread across 25 states who lost roughly US$190 million in a scam that took money from new investors to pay off people who had pumped in cash earlier.

Instead of traveling to Italy with his wife and fixing up his modest house with money he had saved after working 36 years for Chevron Corp., William Miller spends his days battling Parkinson disease and regretting he ever met Daniel Heath. Miller said he entrusted about US$450,000 to Heath's investment firm that promised annual returns of 9 percent.

Unbeknownst to Miller and hundreds of other investors, most of whom were senior citizens, their money was being used to support a large-scale Ponzi scheme.