The description of what they were proposing sounds like a whole stream of shlock Westerns from the late 80s - the Western equivalent of Harlequin romances, comp

The description of what they were proposing sounds like a whole stream of shlock Westerns from the late 80s - the Western equivalent of Harlequin romances, complete with series numbers that reached into triple digits. You used to see whole shelves of these in used book stores. Took a bit of searching, but stuff like the Trailsman and Longarm series, some of which may still be alive - and with close to 400 books in the series. I have to agree with jessaustin - this was a con. The fact that they were able to leverage a securities connection into felony charges does not make it venture capital. Edit: see http://www.readersadvice.com/readadv/000214.html http://www.readersadvice.com/readadv/000214.html for a list of some series and books in them.