Aryan Financial 'Whiz' Pleads to Ripping Off Investors
White supremacist financial adviser and former co-owner of the antigovernment and anti-Semitic Media Bypass magazine has pleaded guilty to running a million-dollar scam targeting his clients.
The National Investor, an online financial newsletter, has a caveat on its home page warning Americans about "pitfalls, exaggerations, frauds, and scams." Good advice — especially since the site's editor, anti-Semitic "Patriot" activist Chris Temple, pleaded guilty to running his own million-dollar scam.
Temple, the former owner and associate editor of Media Bypass, an antigovernment magazine that has grown increasingly anti-Semitic, pleaded guilty in February to mail fraud and money laundering charges (see related story, 'The Sage of Spooner').
His company, National Investor Publishing, had been widely touted in both antigovernment and mainstream publications — but was apparently a facade for a Ponzi-like scheme that Temple hid from investors with humble "Christian" charm. Investigators alleged that Temple stole $1.6 million from investors between 1998 and 2003, using the money to publish his newsletter, remodel his home, and pay off earlier investors.
At press time, Temple was facing a maximum sentence of 40 years without parole.
Temple must have known his downfall was coming. Rachelle Schnapf, assistant editor of Media Bypass, told the Report that on the last day of the magazine's convention in May 2003, Temple suddenly stepped down as associate editor. Schnapf says Temple left in response to an Evansville Courier & Press story about one of his investors, Donald Eldon, suing him over $130,000.
Eldon's lawsuit claimed Temple duped his customers, exerting "unauthorized control" over their money and promising big returns. In August, Eldon was awarded $393,230.
Due to what Schnapf called "financial strain," the magazine has not published since its July/August 2003 issue.
The legal troubles apparently have not put Temple totally out of business as a financial adviser. The well-known CBS MarketWatch.com quoted Temple's advice as late as last November. This February, the respected Hulbert Financial Digest was still listing The National Investor as one of the high-performing financial newsletters that it tracks, and Temple's online newsletter remained current.
