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Judge halts Alpha Telcom scam SEC says Grants Pass firm, along with three other companies, ran Ponzi scheme A U.S. District Court judge in Portland Monday granted the Securities and Exchange Commission's request to halt an alleged $100 million Ponzi-like securities scam by the operators of four firms, including Alpha Telcom Inc. of Grants Pass. Judge Owen M. Panner granted a temporary order freezing the defendants' assets and ordering them to cooperate with investigators. A preliminary injunction hearing is scheduled Sept. 6. The SEC complaint alleges that since 1997 Paul S. Rubera, Robert A. McDonald, Ross S. Rambach and Mark E. Kennison, along with Alpha Telcom, American Telecommunications Company Inc. of Nevada; Strategic Partnership Alliance LLC of Nevada; and SPA Marketing LLC of Nevada raised more than $100 million from more than 7,000 investors nationwide, purportedly for investments in pay telephones, with a promise of 14 percent annual return. However, according to court documents, Rubera, McDonald, Rambach and Kennison and the entities they controlled, operated a "massive Ponzi-like scheme, in which Alpha and ATC's pay-phone operations are losing money but the defendants are making payments to existing investors with the money that they obtain from new investors." In addition, the complaint alleges that Rambach, Kennison, SPA and SPA Marketing acted as unregistered brokers in connection with the offer and sale of investments in the defendants' scheme. Rubera until recently listed Grants Pass as his home but has moved to Connecticut, said SEC assistant regional director Lisa Gok . Assets were frozen at banks in 10 states. Three of Alpha Telcom's accounts were at Home Valley Bank in Grants Pass and four were at U.S. Bank in Grants Pass. Panner ordered investors' money to be returned through court-appointed receiver Thomas F. Lennon, a business turnaround expert based in LaMesa, Calif. Last October, Alpha Telcom was named one of the fastest-growing companies in the country by Inc. Magazine. Alpha Telcom marketed pay phones, pre-paid phone cards, pre-paid cell phones and wireless Internet. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.