PROVO — Freeze! Nobody move (that property).

That's the order 4th District Judge Fred Howard gave last week as prosecutors pursue charges in an alleged $59 million Ponzi scheme.

In an unusual pre-emptive strike, investigators moved to block suspects from selling or transferring real estate and vehicles valued at almost $2.3 million. It is a tactic normally employed when charges are filed in a white-collar criminal probe, which typically takes years to complete.

But by that time, the assets are often long gone.

Prosecutors want to do all they can to prevent that in what has become one of the largest scams Utah County has ever seen, said Jeff Robinson, chief investigator for the Utah County Attorney's Office.

"This will be one of the bigger ones," he said. "At this point, we have the documentation. Because there are hundreds of victims, we're still trying to catch up on those, and it's so big."

An affidavit filed by investigators Sept. 30 names five people being investigated for securities fraud: Larry O. Bosh, of St. George; D. Shawn Benson, of Ivins, Washington County; Michael Smith, of Mona, Juab County; David Q. Poulsen, of Salem, Utah County; and Gale Robinson, of San Jacinto, Calif.

According to the affidavit, Bosh set up Evolution Development in June 2007 to solicit funds for the investment arm of Money & More, a payday lending company with several branches in Southern California. Gale Robinson is the founder and president of Money & More.

Investigators believe Bosh, Benson and Smith offered 10 percent monthly returns to middlemen such as Poulsen, who allegedly recruited more "downline" investors. They ultimately gathered $59 million from their alleged victims, roughly 90 percent of whom are Utah County residents.

All payouts stopped in November 2008, leading to lawsuits and the investigation.

Fraud probes such as this are keeping investigators busy. Victims of fraud in Utah County alone lost $64 million in 2008 and have lost $76 million so far this year. That's a spike from $45 million in the previous two years combined.

"With the recession, we seem to see an uptick in the cases coming to us," said Utah County Attorney Jeff Buhman. "People are looking for a place to put their money other than the stock market right now, and so it drives fraud into other areas. If your nest egg has already shrunk, you're looking for a way to rebuild that."

Life savings gone

That's what happened to Orem resident Robert Clark, a 57-year-old X-ray technician at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. He said co-worker David Poulsen showed off the checks he was receiving from Money & More and asked if Clark was interested.