Thursday, May 13, 2021

Three charged in cattle Ponzi scheme

A federal grand jury in Colorado returned an indictments on a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of about $650 million on cattle they thought they were buying. 

Reva Joyce Stachniw, 69, of Galesburg, Ill., and Ron Throgmartin, 57, of Buford, Ga., were charged with running a Ponzi scheme, along with a third co-conspirator, Mark Ray, from late 2017 until early 2019 that resulted in tens of millions of dollars in losses for the investors, the Department of Justice said in a news release on Wednesday.

Ray was previously charged for his role in the scheme in the Central District of Illinois.

They also used Universal Herbs LLC to defraud investors in the marijuana business.

In all variations of the scheme, victim-investors were promised returns of 10 to 20 per cent in periods as short as several weeks.