“I have a dream, where some day, just the facts will be taught in schools. I have a dream where one day the personal opinions and politics of teachers won’t even enter into the arena of public education without first having been prefaced with ‘this is my opinion’. I have a….”

Okay, just talking like old MLK there!

The deal was Stephens’ last. He died the following month, struck down by a heart attack while praying with a neighbor outside of his Texas home.

Now there’s a death we can all poke fun at!

As soon as the show was over, Cojanis got on the phone to find out how to invest in the venture. Days later the 70-year-old retiree received a form letter addressed, “Dear End Time Servant.” It claimed that the oil reserves at Ness’ planned drilling site ranged “from one billion to 40 billion barrels…putting this prospect in a class of the super giant oil fields of the world.” Without a second thought, Cojanis bought $120,000 worth of stock in Ness. “Faith is a gift God puts in your heart,” he explained when I visited him in October at his cluttered town house, piled with crumpled boxes of prophecy-themed newsletters and cassette tapes of old Christian radio shows. “And I didn’t have any doubt that Ness was a plan of God. He raised up Hayseed Stephens to find Israel’s oil.”

Uh-huh.

Eight years later, Ness has yet to sink so much as an initial borehole for a Dead Sea well. In fact, for most of its existence it has never even held exploration rights in Israel. Its U.S. headquarters, a barnlike storefront topped with an open Bible sprouting an oil well, was shuttered in 2006. Since then, its stock price has fallen from a high of nearly $5 to a mere 3 cents; Cojanis’ $120,000 investment is now worth $3,000. Not that he’s worried. “I’m glad the stock price is in the tank,” he says. “When they hit oil and the stock goes sky-high, that means Armageddon is around the corner.” At that point, he plans to use his gains to spread the word that the end times are here, preparing as many souls for heaven as possible.

Uh-huh.
They’re not going to hit oil, cuz the company’s gone under with your money there fella.
But you’re 70. Armageddon’s comin’ for ya soon anyway, and you’ll have such fun at the party.

So many decent things could have been done with the money this guy swindled out of gullible people who wanted to help bring about the end of the world. *sigh*

I want to turn $120,000 into $11,000,000 at the expense of religious fools.

I know day trading is dangerous, but if you know it’s a scam, is it possible to pull out before it comes crashing down?