Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Investors, skittish after the Bernard Madoff and R. Allen Stanford investigations, are sending daily tips on suspected Ponzi schemes to U.S. regulators, Commodity Futures Trading Commission member Bart Chilton said.

“There’s a Ponzi-palooza out there,” Chilton told reporters today in Arlington, Virginia. “As people are looking at these Ponzi schemes in the media, they start thinking, well, are my investments OK? So we get tips.”

The commodities regulator, which oversees $5 trillion in daily trading on futures and options markets, today announced complaints in two separate alleged Ponzi schemes, one in Idaho and one in Georgia. The new cases brings the number of agency complaints this year to seven, valued at a total of $150 million.

Chilton, a Democrat on the five-member commission, said Congress should give the agency the authority to impose criminal charges for wrongdoing. The agency can now only file civil complaints and must ask the Justice Department to seek jail terms for violations of its rules.

Madoff, president of his own investment firm, was arrested Dec. 11 and charged with one count of securities fraud for an alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Stanford, president of Stanford Financial Group, has been sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly misleading investors about $8 billion in certificates of deposit.

“We’re hearing about all sorts of other scams too,” Chilton said. “This criminal authority I think is going to be more and more important and I’m hopeful we’re going to get it passed this year as part of a financial regulatory reform proposal that passes Congress.”

The House Agriculture Committee, which has jurisdiction over the commission, earlier this month approved legislation that would allow for criminal prosecutions, in addition to expanding the agency’s authority over derivatives markets.

A Ponzi scheme promises high returns, with money taken from new investors to pay off early investors.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tina Seeley in Washington at tseeley@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 27, 2009 14:49 EST