Investment Seminar Con Artist Gets Prison for Ponzi Scheme
A businessman who portrayed himself as a real estate expert and taught investment seminars in Southern California has until noon on May 13 to surrender his freedom following a conviction for running a Ponzi scheme that duped victims out of $3 million.
Onetime Orange County Sheriff’s Department reserve deputy, Shawn Watkins used his The Equity Growth Group and Investors Workshop Inc. to commit mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering from at least 2010 to 2013, according to federal prosecutors.
Watkins and co-conspirator Angel Bronsgeest of Lake Forest promised investors they would make legitimate profit-producing real estate deals but instead diverted victims’ money for their own use and maintained the mirage by partially repaying older investments with newer incoming funds.
Prosecutors say the scam robbed life savings from numerous individuals.
“You gave monthly speeches on how easy it was to not only make money but at the same time uplift the lives and living conditions of renters so they could become homeowners themselves one day,” one angry victim told U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney about his experience with Watkins. “You were regarded highly by your peers in real estate, giving many examples of your success and problems you overcame. You made sure we knew you had been a policeman, which gave you an air of respect and trustworthiness we are supposed to have for law officers. . . . You have taught me not to take people and situations at face value, no matter how good the snake oil looks.”
Read more: https://ocweekly.com/investment-seminar-ponzi-scheme/