A sign is seen at US Department of Justice Headquarters in Washington, DC, August 29, 2020.
Andrew Kelly | Reuters
This high-handed scam was all sizzle and no steak.
the two ponzi scheme Raised a staggering $650 a million Sentenced to six years by investors for falsely promising profits from cattle and marijuana business prison.
Defendants Reva Joyce Stachniw and Ron Throgmartin were also ordered by a federal judge in Colorado to pay more than $35 million in combined restitution and forfeiture. Department of Justice.
Stachniw, 71, of Gallensburg, Illinois, and Throgmartin, 59, of Buford, Georgia, were found guilty of wire fraud and conspiring to commit both wire fraud and money laundering at trial in August. I received
Prosecutors said the defendant, along with co-conspirator Mark Ray of Denver, operated a Ponzi scheme from late 2017 to early 2019.
Ray pleaded guilty to wire fraud and bank fraud related to the scheme in February 2020 in federal court in Illinois. He is free while awaiting judgment.
The three companies, which promised returns of about 10% to 20% over a short period of a few weeks, attracted money from investors across the United States by offering one of three different investment opportunities, court filings say. the documents say.
“In most cases, the co-conspirators fraudulently represented to the victim investors that their investments were supported by short-term investments in cattle,” the Justice Department said when the indictments were first announced. said in a May 2021 press release.
“They also used false and fraudulent pretense to solicit money from the victim investors on behalf of the co-conspirator’s Colorado-based marijuana business, Universal Herbs LLC.
Other victims gave money to co-conspirators based on false promises that it would be used for business activities related to cattle and marijuana “without tying the investment money to a specific investment opportunity.”
In reality, the profits paid to investors were from funds that other unwitting investors put into the Ponzi scheme, officials said.
Throgmartin’s attorney, Steve Sadow, wrote in an email to CNBC: “
