Joseph Clark Lavin

A default judgment for $3.9 million has been entered in the United States against a now-defunct 'credit union' domiciled in Panama and purportedly operated from Nevis that received proceeds from a securities fraud.The judgment was entered against relief defendant Prosperitas Internationale Credit Union at the U. S. District Court for the Western District of Washington on July 24, 2008 in a civil action prosecuted by the U. S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Prosperitas Internationale was served on October 12, 2007 through one of its officers, Bruce Hawkins, a resident of Gig Harbor, Washington, but never entered an appearance in the case, according to the CFTC.

A sham offshore ‘credit union' that was controlled by the now-defunct, fraudulently-operated Global Prosperity Group received $3.8 million from a United States-based investment scam, it has been claimed.Prosperitas Internationale, described as “a purported ‘credit union' purportedly operating out of Nevis”, has been named as a relief defendant in a complaint for a permanent injunction that was filed by the U. S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission at the U. S. District Court for the Western District of Washington on August 1, 2007.