U.S. Department of Justice
United States Attorney
Southern District of Mississippi
188 East Capitol Street
Suite 500
Jackson, Mississippi 39201-0101
Telephone 601-965-4480
Facsimile 601-965-4409

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 25, 2003

2 PLEAD GUILTY TO PONZI SCHEME

Dunn Lampton, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi, Eric Clark, Secretary of State; Michael Nelson, Special Agent in Charge, Criminal Investigations, Internal Revenue Service; Michael Holt, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and Edward Worthington, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, today announced that Louis D. Hamric, II, 54 of Memphis, TN, and Victor G. Nance, 52 of Jackson pled guilty to money laundering charges. Hamric pled guilty to Count 22 of the indictment charging him with money laundering conspiracy, a charge which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and/or a $500,000 fine or twice the value of the property involved in the offense. Nance pled guilty to Count 54 of the indictment charging him with depositing $519,015.00 into AmSouth Bank knowing that the funds were derived from mail fraud or wire fraud. This charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine or twice the value of the property involved in the offense. Both of these defendants pled guilty to the forfeiture count designed to recover $10.2 million that investors lost in the fraud scheme engineered by Hamric and Nance.

Hamric is an attorney, formerly licensed to practice in Mississippi and Tennessee and Victor Nance was formerly a Mississippi licensed securities dealer. They are alleged to have engaged in running a "PONZI" scheme. In such a scheme early investors are paid a "return" on their investments using monies obtained from later investors, thereby creating an appearance of successful investments and by so doing encouraging others to "invest" their money.

In this case, Nance had been a financial advisor for years and convinced many of his clients that they should invest in a "Promissory Note" with Louis Hamric which would pay them between 18% and 30% per year. Nance convinced over 40 of his clients to invest over $10 million in this scheme. Hamric paid Nance approximately $4.8 million in commissions for his services. Although the victims were told that they were investing in a money trading program, no such programs exist and the interest they received was, in fact, a repayment from their own funds.

USA Lampton explained that this case "was an extremely complex scheme involving multiple victims, millions of dollars and money traveling across international borders. We appreciate the assistance of the Secretary of State's office, the Internal Revenue Service, and the other federal investigative agencies involved in investigating this case and reaching this successful milestone. Without their coordination and cooperation, this success would not have been possible."

The indictment identifies over 40 victims who lost the $10.2 million. The investigation has identified other victims of the scheme, and the prosecution of other participants in the scheme is ongoing.

The primary agency involved in investigating this case is the Internal Revenue Service due to its expertise in investigating financial crimes. Press inquiries of that agency should be directed to Raymond Gregson at (504)558-3415.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia Eldridge is the prosecutor in charge of the case.