The Amish Bernie Madoff

Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Members of the Amish community traditionally have settled their scores independent of secular society, but the federal legal system will decide the fate of Monroe Beachy, 77, of Sugarcreek, Holmes County. Beachy was charged (pdf) Wednesday with defrauding thousands of his fellow Amish farmers, carpenters and neighbors of tens of millions of dollars in an alleged Ponzi scheme that has earned Beachy a nickname: The Amish Bernie Madoff.

Beachy, who has a 10th-grade education, acquired much of his financial knowledge from classes at H&R Block. He declared bankruptcy in 2010. He faces one count of mail fraud, and was expected to surrender to federal authorities by Friday. Judge Benita Pearson, whose courtroom is in Youngstown, will preside over the case.
U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach said Beachy's victims suffered an average loss of $13,000.

I just had to include this story after posting the story of the Amish guys being jailed for not posting SMV signs on their buggies.  Andrew Sullivan posted their mug shots today.  They may look like a lot of things, but criminals isn't one of them.  This story is a little more dark.  The guy apparently lost investors money, then falsified statements and paid back early investors with new investors' money.  Anyway, I probably won't cover the Amish crime wave much more in the near future.