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By Shavonne Potts


©early six years after a Rowan County couple duped multiple people out of money through an Internet
investment scam, all of the victims have gotten their money back.
Sammy and Sheila Biggerstaff were recently ordered to pay more than $56,000 in restitution and court
costs stemming from a 2005 scheme in which people gave the couple thousands of dollars to invest.
Danny ³Sparky´ Simmons Jr. of Salisbury was one of the investors. He invested $5,025, all of his savings
at the time.
In 2005, court documents showed 10 people had given the couple $33,960 as individual investors. Some
people gave as much as $12,000.
The Biggerstaffs told investors their investment in the PIPS program could earn interest at a rate of 2.5
percent per day to be compounded daily. The PIPS scheme went under several names including People
in Profit Systems, Private Investment Profit System or Pureinvestor and PIPS Financial Services.
³I heard about it through my father. There were all these people I knew who said they had made all this
kind of money. If my father trusted it, then I trusted it,´ he said.
Simmons took about three months before he invested his money. Once he did, he soon found out
something wasn¶t right.
³I contacted Sheila. All of a sudden the website went down about August 2005,´ he said.
The couple made excuses, saying there was a fire and there were problems with the website.
He approached the Biggerstaffs.
³They said, µYou can¶t prove anything.¶ That¶s when I knew then and there it was one big scam,´ Simmons
said.
Investors in the program had no way of withdrawing their money, court documents showed. In 2005,
Sheila Biggerstaff told investigators records were set up electronically through her computer and there
were no receipts.
Doug McCullum of Union County invested one of the largest amounts, $10,000.
He spoke to friend Danny Simmons about getting involved.
McCullum had wanted to invest his money following the sale of his home. McCullum said he was
convinced the program was legitimate especially after the elaborate plan he saw while at the Biggerstaffs¶
home.
He said the couple purported to be Christians and told him the PIPS program had invested money to help
pay for Christian children¶s funds.
McCullum said he felt as if he were doing something good.
The couple gave McCullum receipts, he said, for the money he¶d invested.
³They said they didn¶t take credit cards or checks because of people committing fraud,´ McCullum said.
Six weeks after meeting with Sammy and Sheila Biggerstaff, McCullum tried to access the program¶s
website to ³follow my investment.´
When he couldn¶t gain access, McCullum called the Biggerstaffs, who claimed they didn¶t know who he
was and hung up the phone.
The next phone call he made was to his attorney.
The case languished in the court system until mid-2010 when Assistant District Attorney Tom King met
with the 11 identified victims.
³The victims all agreed if we could assist them in getting their principal amount of money back at the time
a plea agreement was entered,´ King said.
King told the victims they had two options, if he tried the case and the couple were convicted the court
could order restitution and a payment schedule would¶ve been set up through the probation system. The
alternative was if the couple accepted a plea, the money would be paid the day the agreement was
reached.
³They didn¶t oppose the felony to misdemeanor,´ King said.
The district attorney¶s office dismissed 11 charges of felony obtaining property by false pretense against
Sammy Biggerstaff.
Sheila Biggerstaff was given unsupervised probation on four counts of misdemeanor larceny and was
ordered to pay court cost and $56,715 restitution. The seven charges of felony obtaining property by false
pretense were dismissed by the district attorney¶s office.
³He did exactly what he promised to do and he did it well,´ Simmons said of King.
King said he was pleased to resolve the case for the victims.
³I met with all the folks and they seemed to be decent hardworking folks, who, with good intentions,
trusted the Biggerstaffs,´ King said.
He said it was a top priority for the district attorney¶s office to recover the victims¶ losses.
Law enforcement only made him aware of the 11 victims, but King believes there are other victims.
³Anytime there¶s a scam of this nature, it¶s really sad. In this instance, all of the victims seemed to be
decent individuals who had worked hard for their money who had been scammed by the Biggerstaffs. I¶m
delighted we were able to assist them in getting their money back,´ King said.
John Philpott, a financial advisor with Edward Jones advises people to be cautious.
³If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,´ he said.
He advises people to talk to other investors before committing, invest with trusted firms and look at the
current interest rate.
In this case, the Biggerstaffs promised a return of 2.5 percent interest per day.
³That¶s a 912 percent return on your money. That¶s probably not going to happen,´ Philpott said.
Sheila Biggerstaff declined to comment.
Contact reporter Shavonne Potts at 704-797-4253.

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