Judith Zabalaoui, a certified financial planner from Metairie charged with stealing. Local investors lose $3 millio - Judith Zabalaoui Metairie , La Ponzi scammer

Judith Zabalaoui, a certified financial planner from Metairie charged with stealing. Local investors lose $3 million
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
By Jen DeGregorio
Business writer
Disgraced money manager Bernard Madoff may have shaken financial circles in New York with his alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme, but it appears that the New Orleans area had a Ponzi purveyor of its own.

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten charged Judith Zabalaoui, a 71-year-old certified financial planner from Metairie, with embezzling more than $3 million from investors. A statement from Letten's office described Zabalaoui's operation as a Ponzi scheme, a form of financial fraud that relies on a stream of new investors to supply cash that is used to create the appearance of profits on existing accounts.

In a five-count bill of information filed in federal court on Tuesday, Letten charged Zabalaoui with mail fraud in connection with the bogus investment operation she ran from 1993 until late 2007. She allegedly promised clients returns of between 13 percent and 26 percent if they invested with two phony companies, Paragon Company and Omni Clearing. The companies supposedly bought discounted municipal bonds, tax liens and foreclosed real estate and resold the assets for a profit.