Cliff Buchan
News Editor

On most days, Mark King hangs his hat in Atlanta, GA.

But in recent days, the senior financial consultant for Hays Financial Consulting, has been calling Forest Lake and the metro area his home away from home.

With three visits to the area on the books since early December, King is getting to know the area well. And he will return again soon, he says.

King is one of nearly a dozen employees for Hays, the court-appointed receiver that is working a multi million dollar investment fraud scheme that has reached Forest Lake and a local minister, Neulan Midkiff, the apostle of Shiloh Church here.

Midkiff, 63, and his Joshua Tree Group LLC and numerous other companies, are being investigated by the Security and Exchange Commission, the FBI and the U.S. Postal Service for an alleged fraudulent investment program that has collected at least $36 million for offshore investment banks.

The investment program is categorized by investigators as a Ponzi scheme in that it promised no-risk monthly interest payments of 4-12 percent.

Under Ponzi schemes, continued investments are required to help fund the interest payments.

A federal court order issued in Texas last month froze assets of numerous companies and individuals, including Midkiff and one of the planís masterminds, Travis Correll of Atlanta.

While the SEC has said the scheme has collected at least $36 million in assets, that figure could be closer to $150 million when the Hays investigation ends, the company said this month.

So far, 1200 individual investors have been identified and the number continues to grow, King said on Jan. 12 while in Minnesota.

King a busy guy

King found himself traveling from Forest Lake to the metro area during a three-day visit here last week. His job is to identify and secure assets under the court order that will eventually be used to help satisfy investors who were bilked by the investment scheme, he said.

King visited with Midkiff and his wife Donna at their home on Hilo Lane N. in Forest Lake last week.

He said the couple has been cooperative with the investigation.

ìItís tough because it (the investigation) came as a surprise to them, or so they say,î King said. ìWe are trying to work with them.î

Hays has seized the home on Hilo and a second Midkiff-owned home on SE Bay Drive in Forest Lake.

ìWeíll be moving to sell the homes and whatever else we recover,î King said. The latter includes vehicles.

King said a Lincoln Navigator and Mercedes-Benz were in the Midkiff garage during his visit last week. He said he was not certain last week who held title to the vehicles.

King said the probe is also looking at the Shiloh Church building on Harrow Ave. N. and its purchase last year.

ìWe are still investigating the church,î King said. ìWe know some of the money went to the purchase of the church.î

How many people were sold into the scheme in Forest Lake is still an unknown number, King says. And so is the dollar amount of the investments.

Some area residents with knowledge of the investment program say the number of investors could be as high as 400 from the Forest Lake area.

ìWeíre still trying to get our arms around it,î King said.

Hays Financial continues to seek names of those who invested in the scheme. Investor declaration forms can be found on the Hays Financial Consulting, web site: www.haysconsulting.net.

For questions related to specific issues, calls should be directed to 404-926-0059.

A claim deadline of March 31, 2006 has been established as part of the court order.

Anyone who invested and lost money on the investment must be identified and listed with Hays in order to be eligible for any refund once Midkiff assets are liquidated.

The company is also attempting to determine the amount of interest payments made to the early investors who got in on the ground floor of the Midkiff investment plan.

During his visit last week, King talked with Ken Skoglund of Forest Lake.

Skoglund is one of the lucky ones who invested early on and recouped his investment total.

Skoglund met initially with Midkiff but made most of his investments directly with Correll and Horizon Establishment in Atlanta.

Allegation by SEC in review

The SEC alleges that investors were instructed to send or wire their money to a company named TNT or to one of Correllís entities -- Net Worth Group or TC&Co, and that all of the funds would be transferred to a Horizon Establishment bank account controlled by Correll.

According to the complaint, investors are told that Correll, the ìmoney manager,î would send investor funds for deposit in an offshore reserve account.

A ìtrader,î with exclusive contracts with international banks, supposedly used the monies in the reserve account to participate in trading programs and loan programs.

In reality, however, the bank deposit program does not exist and none of the investorsí funds are sent to the trader or his entities or to any offshore account for investment, according to the complaint.

Instead, as set forth in the complaint, all of the investor funds are commingled among various Correll-controlled accounts, and the ìinvestment returnsî paid to investors are Ponzi payments, i.e., they derive from the proceeds of more recent investors.

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Forest Lake Times
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Forest Lake, MN 55025
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