$650 Million Cattle and Marijuana Ponzi Scheme
The U.S. Department of Justice has charged an Illinois woman and a Georgia man with running a Ponzi scheme that raised approximately $650 million from investors across the country. A federal grand jury indictment was unsealed in Colorado this week revealing the scheme that ran from late 2017 until early 2019 that resulted in tens of millions of dollars in losses for the investors.
According to court documents, Reva Joyce Stachniw, 69, of Galesburg, Illinois, and Ron Throgmartin, 57, of Buford, Georgia, were charged with running a Ponzi scheme, along with a third co-conspirator, Mark Ray. Ray was previously charged by criminal information for his role in the Ponzi scheme in the Central District of Illinois in February 2020.
According to the indictment, the conspirators fraudulently represented to victims that their investments were backed by legitimate business activity related to cattle. They also used false and fraudulent pretenses to solicit money from victim-investors for the conspirators’ Colorado-based marijuana business, Universal Herbs LLC, the DOJ said.
In all variations of the scheme, victim-investors were promised returns of approximately 10% to 20% over periods as short as several weeks.
At no point did Stachniw, Throgmartin or Ray tell victim-investors that they were primarily using their money to repay other investors in a Ponzi-style investment scheme, or to enrich themselves, the DOJ said. Stachniw and Throgmartin allegedly received millions of dollars from the scheme, despite putting little to none of their own money into it.
Stachniw and Throgmartin are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, five counts of wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy to engage in money transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity. Stachniw and Throgmartin made their initial court appearance Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge N. Reid Neureiter of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.
If convicted, Stachniw and Throgmartin face a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for wire fraud, and 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for conspiracy to engage in money transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity.
