Quatlosers > Clyde Hood

Quatlosers Hall of Shame

Clyde Hood

These special-editions Quatloos commemorates those who have made a name for themselves in their particular business endeavors.

5 Q
Clyde Hood

In 1994, Clyde Hood , a retired electrician with a history of petty fraud from the quiet little town of Mattoon, Illinois, woke up one morning and declared himself to be one of only seven "traders" in the world who were capable of pulling off multi-quadrillion dollar deals to benefit humanitarian programs worldwide. As stupid as this sounds, Clyde started lecturing to church groups and promising people that if they would just give him $100, he would give them back the $100 plus $5,000 in profits, and people believed him like crazy. Literally thousands of people sent Clyde $100 bills (often in amounts in the $20,000 range) wrapped in aluminum foil and delivered by Federal Express (since, according to Clyde, the U.S. government was attempting to "block" the trades and thus the U.S. Postal Service was untrustworthy). According to Clyde, the program "closed" to new investors in 1995.

By the end of 1995, Clyde had scammed more than $10 million dollars, mostly from the poor and retirees, and was spinning a long line of excuses as to why the program hadn't hit it big yet. But, even though the program wasn't paying as promised, more people wanted to enter the program so Clyde and his accomplices spun the tale that some people had wanted out of the program and had sold their units back to it, and these units were now available to them as "refund units", costing $100 but worth $5,100. Also, having a pool of suckers who were dumb enough to buy in once, Clyde and his band of Hoods then ran several similar scams known as "Alpha" and "Destiny" which were premised on the payouts from Omega. People bought into these programs too, though Omega was seriously overdue. All this time, Clyde and his Hoods were living the high life and taking tours of Europe (ostensibly to close the deal) and buying up businesses in Mattoon, such as the Blue Bird Diner.

Clyde and 18 more of his Hoods were finally indicted in 2000, and all either plea-bargained or were convicted, and you can read all about it in our Omega Trust & Trading Exhibit. Today, Clyde is probably a lifetime guest of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. But just as Charles Ponzi's arrest didn't end his pyramid scheme, Omega has lived on even while Clyde (lately known as the "King" by his followers) languishes in prison, see The Omega Chronicles, and even now tens of thousands of really stupid people sit around the countryside waiting for the Federal Express or UPS truck to pull up which will make them gazillionaires. Lately, Omega has also been the foundation for a new scam -- the so-called NESARA scam.

Our 5Q "Refund Unit" commemorates Clyde Hood and the Omega Trust & Trading Program.

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