The Amish Cook from Oasis Newsfeatures

Photo: Berne Madoff, Ponzi king....

Bernie Madoff was the Ponzi schemer who caused so many people to lose their live savings by sweet talking his way into their bank accounts.  And when the economy came crashing down in 2008 so to did Madoff.  Well, an article in the Lancaster paper this morning describes a plain Mennonite who sorta bilked a bunch of trusting Amish and Mennonite investors into losing a lot of money also.  It just goes to show you that there are con artists of every creed.  In this case the antagonist is a man named John Sensing who is a plain Mennonite that encouraged many of his Brethren to invest in his companies.  But it turned out many of his companies were non-existent or existed only on paper.  Typically the Amish are very conservative with their money.  You aren't often going to find an Amish person putting money into the stock market or into mutual funds, but, in this case, it was "one of their own" persuading them to invest and that held more appeal.   In that sense Sensing did resemble Madoff because Madoff preyed the most on his own social circles, people who inherently trusted him.  Click here to read about this complex scheme unfolding in Lancaster County.