Mantria: Carbon dioxide hoax Ponzi scheme money spent on "McKelvy's extravagant lifestyle, heavy drinking and a steady stream of prostitutes"

Mantria Corporation: The biggest green Ponzi scheme ever? | MNN - Mother Nature Network

It probably seemed too good to be true: A corporation promising to build a carbon-negative residential community powered by a groundbreaking new type of alternative energy, all of which would yield investors returns of anywhere from 17 to "infinite" percent.

It turns out it was too good to be true, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which on Nov. 17, 2009, charged Philadelphia-based Mantria Corporation with securities fraud, calling it a "green investment Ponzi scheme." But by that time, Mantria investors — most of them from the Denver area — had already been bilked out of a reported $54 million.

Writer James Carlson outlines the rise and fall of Mantria in the July issue of Denver-based 5280 magazine.

According to Carlson, most of the blame for Mantria's Ponzi scheme lies with employee Wayde McKelvy, the company's Colorado-born lead investment broker who told the reporter he was in it for "the game," not the money — although the money went into McKelvy's extravagant lifestyle, heavy drinking and a steady stream of prostitutes.