Ponzi-scheme defendant accused of violating freeze
The lawyer gathering assets says Robert Stinson Jr. paid an ex- employee.
One day after agreeing to an asset freeze in July, accused Ponzi schemer Robert Stinson Jr. met a former employee at Penn's Landing and handed him a bank teller's envelope containing $1,600 in back pay, according to a motion filed Wednesday in federal court to hold Stinson in contempt of the asset freeze.
The motion follows similar action last month against Stinson's wife, Susan Stinson, who took her extended family on a luxurious California beach vacation in August, allegedly paid for with $24,000 that investors had put into Life's Good Inc., Stinson's company, which was supposedly making high-interest real estate loans.
In June, the Securities and Exchange Commission closed Life's Good, alleging that the Philadelphia company had swindled 140 investors nationwide out of $16 million over about four years.
Even though Stinson and his wife agreed to the asset freeze, they apparently had trouble living on a budget, repeatedly violating its terms by spending money - with the help of family members - that should have been available to compensate victims, according to the court-appointed receiver, Kamian Schwartzman, who is trying to gather Life's Good's assets.
Schwartzman said Stinson - who applied for welfare and food stamps this month, according to court records - should repay $76,432 that he allegedly spent in violation of the asset freeze. Stinson, who does not have an attorney in the SEC's civil case against him, did not respond to an e-mail requesting comment on the contempt motion.
Joshua Kotzen, the employee who was given $1,600 at Penn's Landing, also received a $1,500 cashier's check in August. Kotzen was vice president of programming for the Eclipse Channel, one of several Life's Good entertainment affiliates.
In an affidavit, Kotzen described a meeting of Life's Good employees in July, when Stinson assured them the allegations were untrue.
That meeting took place in a Northern Liberties building where Stinson planned to open a recording studio to complement the New York talent agency, Rogue International Talent Group, he had invested in with Life's Good money.
For previous coverage of the case against Robert Stinson Jr., go to go.philly.com/stinson
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