Janet Ackerson

Asset protection firm Merrill Scott & Associates (in Receivership) helped a U. S.-based doctor hide millions of dollars from his creditors, including a woman dying from cancer, it has been alleged. MSA set up offshore structures for Dr. Thomas Shelton Powers in several offshore centers, including the Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Nevis and Panama, according to a complaint filed at the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas on December 24, 2002.

Items that were stolen from the premises of Merrill Scott and Associates four days after an SEC lawsuit was filed against the firm were allegedly found in the office of a new firm set up by former employees. That is a claim being made by the attorney who has been appointed Receiver for the Merrill Scott group, which was based in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the Bahamas.

A United States court has appointed a receiver for and frozen the assets of an offshore investment group that has been accused by the SEC of operating a Ponzi scheme that took in at least $25 million. David K. Broadbent was appointed receiver on January 23, 2002 for the defendants in a civil lawsuit that had been filed eight days earlier by the SEC at the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah.