A couple put their Ponzi commissions in a Cook Islands trust that locked when they were sued, and a US judge jailed them for six months

Michael and Denyse Anderson ran Financial Growth Consultants, a San Diego telemarketing firm. It sold $5,000 shares in late-night television ads for products such as talking pet tags, promising 50 percent returns in 60 to 90 days. It was a Ponzi scheme. The firm raised at least $13 million and kept about $6.3 million in commissions. In July 1995 the couple had set up an irrevocable trust under Cook Islands law, with themselves and AsiaCiti Trust as co-trustees and themselves as protectors. A court order against them counted as an "event of duress" that removed them as trustees and barred the trustee from sending money back. The Federal Trade Commission sued on 23 April 1998, and a Nevada judge ordered them to bring their foreign assets home. The trustee refused under the duress clause. They tried to appoint their children as trustees, and the trustee removed the children^†. On 17 June 1998 Judge Lloyd George jailed them for contempt, saying they were in control of the trust. They were released on 22 December 1998^†, still in contempt. On 15 June 1999 the Ninth Circuit affirmed, holding that their powers as protectors left them in control. In April 2000 the court entered a $20 million judgment against them. In December 2002 the trustee settled and turned over $1.2 million; the FTC held about $1.4 million for investors. Status: civil judgment entered April 2000; a law firm that sets up such trusts says it remains unpaid^†.