Keith Eugene Mitchell

ALERT: Keith Eugene MitchellL and Alleged Co-Conspirator “Dr.”/“Pastor” Stephen J. Cooney

DBA: “The Option Group” Operating out of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
Without remorse they will lose your money!
In this case they scammed their victims for over $500,000.00.

They make empty promises of extraordinary returns with little to no chance of losses.

Be warned, you will lose your money in their illegal schemes.

Here’s the summary of the case:

In about June of 2007, Keith Mitchell and Stephen Cooney held an Investors meeting at a high-end resort in Coeur D Alene, Idaho. The VICTIMS present consisted of several retired Christian Missionaries and senior citizens with limited financial resources. Some of the investors allege that they were shown documents that demonstrated annual returns of 100%. It was indicated that at the least the investors should see a return of 3 to 5% a month.

Further it was promised that in the worst case scenario the investors would never lose more than 5% in any one month and should the investors desire they could immediately withdraw their investment at anytime with 30-days notice. In short the pitch was that the investment was fool-proof”

Cooney who purported to be a Christian minister, a man of God of unshakable integrity, supported Mitchell’s claims stating that he had over $1,500,000.00 (One Million Five Hundred Thousand Dollars) invested in Mitchell’s program and was experiencing huge returns to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The two men worked in concert to entice and induce the various investors into giving them money. In fact it was stated by Mitchell that Cooney received compensation for assisting Mitchell.

As follow-up to the group meeting in Coeur D Alene, Mitchell even traveled to Yakima Washington to meet with some of the same investors in order to perpetuate his scheme. Ultimately the group invested over $500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Dollars) with Mitchell.

A few months later the members of the investment group began to receive “Margin Call” notices on their investments. Mitchell employed the services of a securities broker named “Yarjana”. When the investors came to Mitchell and Yarjana with concerns about the notices, they both directed the investors to ignore or disregard the notices that they were in fact errors.

In February of 2008, the investors discovered that the majority of their principle had been lost by Mitchell and directed them to liquidate what was left of their money. With more than 50% of their money gone, Mitchell confirmed in March that he would liquidate the account and return the money. Further he promised that he personally would “payback the lost principle” himself.

Shortly after this order to liquidate the account, Mitchell and partner in crime, Yarjana went on vacation to Mexico together without following thru with the liquidation. In short the victims lost their money. None of the promises have been brought to fruition.

When confronted with the issue Pastor Cooney’s only comment was, “It must have been God’s will”. Yet the investors discovered that when the investment program began to lose money, Cooney’s accounts were liquidated saving him the fate of the rest of the investors.

Investigation has shown that not only is Keith Mitchell not licensed to sell or market Securities, but that he previously had been under investigation by the State of Idaho for selling securities without a license and was subsequently fined some $25,000.00 and ordered to “Cease and Desist” his activities.

Mitchell and Cooney have within the last two months employed the services to two different attorneys to shield themselves from the outrage of the bilked investors. They have done everything from tell the investors to pound sand to promise to make good on the lost money.

Mitchell has on several occasions stated that he has got some Swiss Deal in the works that will allow him to pay the victims back. But, time and time again refuses to reveal any details of this purported Swiss Deal” Both of the attorneys hired to protect Mitchell and Cooney have dropped from the picture as Mitchell continued to stonewall them as well.

International Fraud Alert spoke with an official at the American Justice Coalition, who advised that they had been brought into the matter to examine the issue from a criminal perspective and to possibly mediate the situation to resolution. However, to date, the suspects have made no substantive attempt at any type of resolution. AJC stated that they are close to completing their investigation and will be forwarding their findings to various governmental agencies requesting official intervention.

Bottom line WARNING to the public, BEWARE of Keith Eugene Mitchell and Stephen J. Cooney. These con men will claim to be able make you incredible returns on your investments. Their claims are a SCAM they will lose your money laughing all the way to the bank, leaving you broke.

If you have any additional information that will assist in bringing these criminals to justice please send an email. Also please report your case to your local, state and federal authorities. Help us put stop to these scam artists from damaging anyone else!!.

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