Five of his associates were convicted of active participation of the scheme and were ordered to make restitution. On JanuHood was sentenced to prison for 14 years and was fined $5,000. On April 10, 2001, Hood pleaded guilty to mail or wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, and filing a false tax return. Some of them pleaded guilty or were convicted of multiple counts of fraud, mail fraud, money laundering and filing a false tax return (see 26 U.S.C. Hood lawyer Steve Ryan was also later removed from the case when he was subpoenaed as a witness and for possible collusion.Ĭlyde Hood and his 18 associates were indicted in 2000. Some of the money also went to finance businesses of other Hood associates like construction contractor Chris Engel.Įngel later cooperated with the police and let them tape a phone conversation with Hood. With the money Hood and his associates bought land and businesses in Mattoon, gave no-interest loans and made trips to Europe. In addition, Hood began new investment schemes named Alpha and Destiny and obtained more money from those who had invested to Omega. The estimated total amount of money was $20 million.
When some people still wanted to join, Hood and accomplices claimed that they could sell share units of people who had wanted to leave the program. He began to present number of excuses as to why investors had not been paid, blaming administrative costs, problems with foreign banks and international financial conflicts. By that time, Hood had received more than $10 million. The program stopped accepting new investors in 1995. Thousands of people from USA and overseas sent money. Therefore, the scheme should remain secret. federal government was trying to block the trades through the United States Postal Service. He wanted the money delivered wrapped in aluminum foil and via Federal Express because U.S. Hood asked for an investment of $100 and promised a payout of $5,100 within 275 days. He claimed that he was one of the international traders who could make secret multimillion-dollar deals to benefit humanitarian programs through debentures and "prime bank notes" in foreign banks. He said that the Lord had given him a mission. In 1994 Hood formed Omega Trust and Trading Limited and began to lecture to church groups. Hood is a former electrician from Mattoon, Illinois. Omega Trust was a fraudulent US investment scheme in Illinois.Ĭlyde D. JSTOR ( June 2020) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message).Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article needs additional citations for verification.