SUNSET BEACH -- Multiple branches of the Smartvest Investment and Savings shut down at the end of September, after a land scam involving two alleged teens went bad. SmartVest, run by 15-year-old Blazed Miles, billed itself as a full-service bank providing savings accounts, certificates of deposits accounts and portfolio management, with intent to eventually offer mortgages at an interest rate of 1.5%.

On Friday Sept. 28, A Smartvest customer, who wished to remain anonymous but will be referred to as John Smith, told SLNN.com that Miles had just asked him to withdraw his money from the bank. Miles confessed to Smith that he was fifteen, and in major trouble.

Miles explained that with Smartvests' $L700,000 in account deposits, he bought a sim and preordered another one for a month down the road, but the sim seller then demanded payment for the pre-ordered sim immediately. Rich Grainger, a member of Allenvest Development Group and a self-described "Financial transaction specialist moving money around the world via multiple methods and in all currencies," took the sim pre-order from Miles, and threatened to take away the sim Miles already owned outright if he did not pay right away.

Smith, a Smartvest neighbor, had overheard the conversation, which revealed that Grainger knew he was dealing with an underaged person using his mother's credit card. Smith told SLNN.com he spent four hours pleading with the account holders to withdraw, and conversed with Joe314 Mills, the VP of Smartvest Investment and Savings. "I talked him into telling everyone to withdraw their money. "He really did not seem to know anything," Smith said. "I talked to both [Mills and Miles] at the same time so I do not think it is the same person... he really seems like a good kid. I do not think he knew what was happening or what to do and got spooked." Smith, who had invested $L5000 in Smartvest views the issue as "Just two teens biting off more then they could chew... I wanted the bank account holders and the teens to be safe... the only reason I got involved is I owned the plot of land beside the bank, and the owner and sim seller were fighting and I could see the text."

Xavier Mohr, the press representative at Second Life Capital Exchange (CapEx) says that Mills submitted an IPO for Urban Offices (UBO), a building company, to CapEx owned by Arbitrage Wise. CapEx rolled it back because at the first investor meeting, Mills deviated from his prospectus. "Mills was so pissed he admitted to Arbitrage that he was 15," Mohr said. "Then a week later he IM'd me to say everything was fine, and that it didn't matter, because he had moved on to greener pastures."

When SmartVest submitted an IPO, Wise rejected it, citing that Mills, who was listed as the vice president of UBO, was under age. Miles allegedly responded that he did not know Mills was a teenager. Miles' Chairman's letter stated a wish to bring back honest banking in Second Life because "most are corrupt."

Mohr believes that it was Grainger who was the victim, not the teenage boys. "I tell you what [Grainger] did for these boys," Mohr said.