From www.bloomberg.com — Executives at an Illinois estate- planning firm raised more than $20 million for Turkish Eurobond investments, while diverting clients’ money for a stamp collection, Internet pornography and cryogenically frozen umbilical cords, U.S. regulators said.

USA Retirement Management Services, which also has offices in California, and managing partners Francois Durmaz and Robert Pribilski were sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission today for operating a Ponzi scheme since 2005. A federal judge in Los Angeles froze their assets, the SEC said.

“Durmaz and Pribilski used estate planning seminars as a means to elicit investor trust and lure retirees,” said Rosalind Tyson, director of the SEC’s Los Angeles office, in a statement. Meetings were held in country clubs and restaurants.

At least 120 investors agreed to buy promissory notes guaranteed to generate 8 percent to 11 percent annual returns from investments in Turkish bonds, the SEC said. Durmaz, 39, and Pribilski, 51, also raised at least $14 million through a variety of channels since 2006, the agency said. They allegedly sent some funds to bank accounts in Turkey and spent money on luxury cars, housing and vacations.

The stamp collection belonged to Durmaz, according to the SEC complaint. The agency didn’t include additional information on the preserved umbilical cords.

A call to USA Retirement Management’s Los Angeles office was forwarded to a woman who identified herself as Mary and declined to comment. An Internet phone directory had no listings for Durmaz in Los Angeles and Streamwood, Illinois, or for Pribilski in Lisle, Illinois, where the SEC said they reside.