Galvin Brings Charges in Connection with Western Mass Ponzi Scheme

Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin has charged a Lexington woman with defrauding investors out of more than $7 million over the last 6 years, after she allegedly used her family’s well-known Western Massachusetts business as a front for a Ponzi scheme.

According to a complaint filed by Galvin’s Securities Division, Barbara Hirshfield offered and sold investment notes through Ideal Financial Holdings, Inc. Investors who purchased the promissory notes believed that they were investing in Hirshfield’s family business, which had for decades offered motor vehicle financing and small loans. Instead, since at least 2019, Hirshfield operated Ideal as a Ponzi scheme, using money raised from new investors to make interest payments to existing note holders.

The complaint states that Ideal Financial Holdings began as Ideal Budget Plan, Inc. in 1948, when Hirshfield’s father opened the company in Springfield. While the company operated for many years providing financing to consumers purchasing furniture, home appliances, and ultimately motor vehicles, in 2012, the Massachusetts Division of Banks ordered Ideal to cease soliciting outside funds to finance its business. In 2014, the Division of Banks revoked Ideal’s license to operate in Massachusetts.

Despite losing its license, the complaint states that Ideal continued to sell promissory notes and pay interest to existing note holders, with no underlying revenue stream. In order to make interest payments owed to existing investors, Hirshfield continued to solicit new investors.

Since 2019, Ideal raised more than $7.6 million from at least 180 investors, approximately $7.2 million of which was used to pay interest or repay principal to other investors. Investors began having issues with payments in the fall of 2024, with all payments stopping in April of 2025. Since early spring 2025, the Massachusetts Securities Division has received 54 complaints from investors who have not received money that was owed to them by Ideal. Hirshfield continued to raise funds from investors through April 2025.

According to the complaint, due to the company’s long history in the area, a large portion of the affected investors are residents of the Springfield area, descended from those who invested in Ideal in its early years. Many of the victims of this Ponzi scheme are related to one another.

The complaint alleges that Ideal’s "fraudulent business operations have deprived families of retirement funds, funds for unexpected expenses, and of financial security as they prepare to send their children and grandchildren off to college."

"Hirshfield’s actions have devastated the friends and families she and Ideal preyed upon for decades, robbing one investor to pay another until new investors stopped appearing," the complaint continues.

With the complaint, the Securities Division is seeking an order requiring the respondents to cease and desist any practices in violation of state securities laws and regulations, disgorgement of all ill-gotten gains, and that offers of rescission, with interest, be made to all investors.

The Secretary of the Commonwealth is the chief securities regulator in Massachusetts. Through the Securities Division, the office oversees enforcement of the Massachusetts Securities Act. Complaints filed by the Division are heard before a hearing officer in an administrative forum.