Spoiled, Rotten Day Trader
Ian G. Bell touted a wealthy background to allegedly dupe investors in his money-losing investment scheme
“History repeats itself. That's one of the things wrong with history.” – Clarence Darrow
A Denver day trader leveraged his high-society connections to raise more than $1.2 million in investments – some of it from professional athletes. Then he allegedly blew it all on his girlfriend, his mother, himself and his losing trades.
Ian Gregory Bell, 35, faces 18 federal charges and a civil action from the Securities and Exchange Commission for duping at least 29 investors between July 2020 and March 2023.
He was released on a $20,000 bond after pleading not guilty on Monday. His lawyer, longtime white-collar defense counsel Harvey Steinberg, isn’t talking.
According to the indictment:
“BELL touted his investing skills and told many investors he could earn significant returns with low risk. In nearly all cases, however, he spent or lost the investors’ money within days or weeks of receiving it. …
“BELL used proceeds of the scheme for personal gain, including to pay his girlfriend’s credit card bill and to transfer money to his mother.”
Bell’s mother, who is not named in the indictment or the SEC’s complaint is Carylyn Bell, who runs in upper-crust Denver social circles. She has boasted “an elegant Tudor mansion”. (See it all on Realtor.com.) Her LinkedIn page bills her as “an accomplished business leader” and CEO of Corporate Escrow Management Inc.
Bell’s grandfather was the late John McCandish King, former chairman and chief executive officer of the King Resources Co. of Denver, who was sentenced to a year in prison in 1976 after being convicted on fraud and conspiracy charges.
King’s obituary memorializes him as a U.S. Trade Ambassador appointed by former President Richard Nixon, Vice Chairman of the Republican National Finance Committee, a Colorado Republican Party leader and a two-term Illinois House Representative.
Bell’s victims remain largely unnamed in both complaints filed against him, except for former NFL player Ryan Lewis.
Lewis, who is now assistant defensive back coach for the Colorado Mines Orediggers, filed a lawsuit last year alleging that Bell plied him with fake screenshots showing his $100,000 investment had multiplied five times.
He also claimed Bell purported to manage $300 million in assets.
Lewis then invested another $186,000 and recommended Bell to other investors.
Something with the air?
Actions against Bell seem like a case of history repeating itself. Perhaps the 5280 air is too thin for some of Denver’s moneyed class to think clearly.
In 2010, a self-proclaimed day-trading wiz named Sean Mueller plead guilty to fleecing Pro Football Hall of Famer John Elway and some of Denver’s wealthiest people.
Mueller, who was sentenced to 40 years in prison remains in custody to this day.
Bell faces a similar fate. Federal sentencing guidelines listed in the indictment say he could face 20 years for counts 1-13 and 10 years for the rest of them.
(The rest of this report is for paid subscribers.)
Here’s something you can’t take to the bank
Bell, who has worked in software sales, has not held full-time employment since at least 2019, according to the SEC’s 42-page lawsuit.
The complaint details a litany of lies Bell allegedly told his investors about the performance of their investments and his ability to repay them. His misrepresentations were also aimed at getting his investors to put down more money and recommend the scheme to others, the SEC alleges.
“Bell lost or squandered all of the investor’s money,” the SEC charges. “In addition, some of the investor’s funds were never traded at all – Bell simply took the money for himself.”
The SEC complaint contains texts Bell allegedly sent his investors these texts:
“So, you are at 8326! So crushing. You are up 67% I think the market is only up 16% ha ha.”
“I’ll guarantee any amount of money you want to put in … just want [sic] you to make a lot of money with my other clients.”
“I don’t have the exact numbers . . . but you’re up another 5-6k of profits since last report.”
Bell backed up many of his representations with screenshots that the SEC says “were generated by Bell using fabricated numbers Bell input into a trade simulation application.”
A little Investing 101 lesson may be in order here: Screenshots are NOT money.
The check is not in the mail
Bell deployed a number of stall tactics to stave off his investors’ requests for redemptions. According to the SEC:
He wrote “promissory notes that did not have specific payment terms and that Bell did not sign.”
He bounced checks to at least six investors.
He sent an empty envelop that was supposed to contain a check to another investor.
Yep, the ol’ empty envelop trick. Don’t try this at home, folks.
“Bell was a failure as an investor and trader,” the SEC complaint says. “Bell’s trading strategy consistently lost money and generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in cumulative investor losses.”
Here’s how another day-trading dolt landed
One day, I got a tip that a Denver day trader who fancied himself a hedge fund manager was on top of a building about to jump.
His name was Sean Mueller and he had former Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway’s money.
I called then-Colorado Securities Commissioner Fred Joseph (today, he’s a loyal Business Blunders reader) to help me run down a report that the Greenwood Village, Colo. declined to release because it involved a suicide attempt.
That Fred Joseph worked fast. Mueller was arrested before I could even whip out a headline.
Here’s the latest on Mueller from the Colorado Department of Corrections:
Mueller’s confession
Mueller ripped off more than 65 investors, including a woman born with no hands or feet.
I covered his December 2010 sentencing. Looking back at it, I thought what he had to say was instructive. Maybe Bell should have read what Mueller had to say.
Here are some excerpts from the column I wrote in The Denver Post:
Appearing in powder-gray jail garb, Mueller tried to explain how extreme pride blinded him to the grim realities of his investing performance.
“This is on me,” he said. “I have no one to blame but myself.
“At the end of a quarter, a position went against me extremely fast, and I panicked. I sent out a fictitious statement to start this off, thinking I could make this back. It was the wrong choice.
“So a stressful job became even more so I tried working harder. I tried trading harder. Researching harder — 60 to 70 hours a week trying to make this back.
“It didn’t work.”
“On April 22, knowing that a life insurance policy would take care of my wife and two kids, and thinking that the only way to show the clients I was truly sorry was to take my life — I went across the street to a parking garage, waiting for buses to pass, waiting for cars to pass, and in the only moment of clarity I’ve had in this whole process is what an awful example this is leaving my two sons.”
“I don’t have anything grand to say,” Mueller told the judge. “There is no excuse for this. I’m just asking you to consider my current motivations. To allow me to work somehow, eventually. To start paying this back and to possibly support my kids.”
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