(DAVIESS CO.) – A meeting slated for Saturday at Dinky’s Auction Center at 1:30 p.m. will update residents on a bankruptcy case and possible future payments concerning a scam that bilked millions out of the Amish communities of several states including Indiana and Daviess County.
The Washington Times-Herald reports the case was national and dates back to 2015.
Fifty families in Daviess County were affected involving up to possibly $5 million.
Local attorney Grant Swartzentruber is chairman of the Creditor’s Committee in the 5-Star Bankruptcy Case. He says people were promised double-digit returns on investments but instead received letters saying there were issues and there were hopes a payment could be made after reorganizing.
Bankruptcy was then filed where a fraud case was discovered involving millions coming from Amish communities in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
A man who said he was formerly Amish, Earl Miller, convinced people to use 401K and IRA accounts as investments into 5-Star.
Swartzentruber told the Times Herald that he has worked with several Amish families from the area who were victims of the scam. He says he doesn’t think Miller started to take people’s money, but it ended in a way that was illegal.
