It’s happened before, and it will happen again: a bunch of people forego the sound advice of financial/medical/psychological/relationship experts, and follow the word of a “psychic” who tells them what they want to hear; never mind the fact that just about every scientific study done on the subject supports the conclusion that psychic powers simply do not exist.
That didn’t stop Sean
David Morton from allegedly taking gullible investors to the cleaners. The
Securities and Exchange Commission just filed suit against him for fraud.
Morton called himself “
He also claims to be capable of time travel and astral projection. This guy just drips with credibility.
The SEC alleges that Morton didn’t invest all of the money
that his clients gave to him for that purpose; he took at least $240,000 from
his clients and used it to fund his own religious organization. Apparently, he
used the funds for other purposes, as well. According to the ABA
Journal, he received about $6 million from clients, but only deposited
around $3.2 million into trading accounts. Not all of this money can be
accounted for.
Hopefully, Mr. Morton will be able to astrally project
himself out of a jail cell.
This case really illustrates the need to think critically
when it comes to legal and financial matters. In every industry, there are
going to be a few bad apples who promise a product or service, only to take
their customers’ money and run. With products that involve a lot of complex,
behind-the-scenes machinations, such as financial and legal services, many
clients, unfortunately, have to partly take on faith that the person they hired
to solve a legal problem or invest their money knows what they’re doing (of
course, the need for this can be minimized by researching various services
before committing, taking into account their records of success, reputation
among former clients, etc.).
Given this complexity, and how obtuse and impenetrable these industries seem, trusting a supposed “psychic” might not make any less sense to the average consumer than hiring a qualified professional – both will be doing things that the consumer doesn’t understand, and the consumer can do little but hope for a good result.
Of course, consumers should not be blind to the fact that
some providers of legal and financial services know what they’re doing, and
some don’t. Some of them are honest, and some of them are frauds. If one
doesn’t understand all the details of what these professionals do, telling the
difference can be difficult. For that reason, agencies such as the Securities
and Exchange Commission and state Bar Associations need to vigorously enforce
laws against fraud.
It might be easy to laugh at the people who bought Martin’s line that he was a psychic, and some of Martin’s claims on his website are so outlandish that they are pretty funny. But in cases like this, we should remember that the situation certainly isn’t funny to those who were bilked out of their fortunes. It’s also wise to remember that the easiest marks for scammers are people who think they’re too smart to be scammed.
By: Rusty Shackleford
