The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
GEORGIANS ACCUSED OF PONZI SCHEMES
Federal regulators say that Ponzi schemes and other investment fraud have spiked during the pandemic, though some schemes had gone on for years. The latest case came to light this week after federal regulators accused Marietta investment adviser John Woods of a massive Ponzi scheme totaling more than $110 million. Here are other recent cases involving Georgians.
■ This month, Christopher A. Parris of Lawrenceville pleaded guilty to mail fraud related to a Ponzi scheme.
He and a partner formed a New
York business and solicited investments for a business run by church swindler Ephren Taylor.
When Taylor told them the investors’ money had been lost, they tried to solicit money from new investors to try to recoup the money. Parris also was charged with a coronavirus-related scheme to sell nonexistent masks and other equipment to the Department of Veterans Affairs and to states.
■ In May, Ron Throgmartin, 57, of Buford was criminally charged along with two others with running a Ponzi scheme that raised about $650 million. He and the others marketed investments in cattle and marijuana, according to the Colorado indictment, and supplied victiminvestors with promissory notes purporting to pay returns of about 10% to 20%. Throgmartin received more than $3 million over the course of the scheme, prosecutors allege.
■ Also in May, Maurice Fayne, star of“love & Hip
Hop: Atlanta,” pleaded guilty to federal charges involving a federal pandemic loan program and a Ponzi scheme. Federal prosecutors said he solicited investments in his trucking business and spent the money on luxury trips, adult entertainment and shopping excursions. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 8.
■ In April, a federal judge ordered Dean Alford, a former Republican lawmaker and Georgia Board of Regents member, to disgorge more than $8.8 million fraudulently obtained from investors in a Ponzi scheme and to pay an additional $2 million in interest and civil penalties. In May, Alford was criminally indicted related to the alleged Ponzi scheme involving a company he headed, Allied Energy Services.
■ In October, a lawsuit was filed accusing missing financial adviser Christopher Burns of running a Ponzi scheme. Burns disappeared from his Berkeley Lake home in September, a day before he was to give documents related to his business to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Burns is now on the FBI’S most wanted list.
■ In September, former University of Georgia student Syed Arham Arbab was sentenced to five years in federal prison for running a Ponzi scheme from his fraternity house. Prosecutors say he defrauded more than 100 investors of about $1 million. He spent the money on luxury trips, adult entertainment and shopping excursions.