Rindge Man Ordered To Pay More Than $22.8 Million In Restitution To Ponzi Scheme Victims

[nitpicker]

https://www.justice.gov/usao-nh/pr/rindge-man-ordered-pay-more-228-million-restitution-ponzi-scheme-victims

Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
District of New Hampshire

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Rindge Man Ordered To Pay More Than $22.8 Million In Restitution To Ponzi Scheme Victims

CONCORD, N.H. – Aaron E. Olson, 42, of Rindge, New Hampshire, was ordered to pay $22,811,405.26 to the victims of a Ponzi scheme he operated from 2007 through 2012, reported United States Attorney Emily Gray Rice.

Olson was sentenced to 60 months in prison last April for evading taxes from 2007 through 2010 for failing to report illicit income from the Ponzi scheme. From 2007 through 2010, Olson was the sole proprietor of an investment business known as AEO Associates (AEO). In December of 2010, Olson formed KMO Associates LLC (KMO), an investment business that was registered in Massachusetts. Olson ran both operations from an office in Jaffrey, New Hampshire. Olson used AEO and later KMO to obtain approximately $27.8 million from individuals and organizations ostensibly to invest on their behalf. Olson was not licensed as an investment broker in New Hampshire or in any other jurisdiction and he did not register AEO and KMO with the State of New Hampshire as investment businesses.

Olson used approximately $2.6 million of the investors’ money for his personal benefit and used some of the investors’ money to make fraudulent “earnings” payments to other investors. To conceal this conduct, Olson sent investors fictitious earnings statements that falsely showed significant earnings in their accounts.

The collapse of Olson’s fraudulent scheme in about March or April of 2012 left 81 victims with collective losses totaling more than $22.8 million. Under the terms of a plea agreement, Olson was required to pay restitution to the victims in an amount determined by the court. At a hearing yesterday, Olson argued that he only owed about $17.1 million in restitution. The United States Attorney’s Office argued that he owed the entire amount each victim lost. After considering both arguments, United States District Judge Landya B. McCafferty ruled that Olson owed the full amount the victims lost and ordered Olson to pay $22,811,405.26 in restitution immediately.
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