Florida Man Sentenced to 96 Months for Ponzi Scheme That Defrauded More Than 900 Victims of $8 Million
| U.S. Attorney’s Office May 25, 2012 |
ALEXANDRIA, VA—Stanley J. Shew-A-Tjon, 62, of Davie, Florida, was sentenced today to 96 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for carrying out a multi-year Ponzi scheme that defrauded more than 900 investors of approximately $8 million.
Neil H. MacBride, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge James C. Cacheris.
On February 17, 2012, Shew-A-Tjon pled guilty to securities fraud. According to court records, from July 2005 through January 2008, Shew-A-Tjon solicited individuals from throughout the United States and internationally to invest in a range of investment opportunities, including gold, foreign currency exchanges, and private placement funds. During his pitch, Shew-A-Tjon represented that investors would experience an unusually high monthly rate of return, ranging from five percent to 18 percent per month.
Based on these representations, Shew-A-Tjon raised approximately $16 million from more than 900 investors; however, he failed to disclose to them that a significant portion of the returns paid out to existing investors were derived from funds contributed by new investors. He also falsified investors’ account statements with false information concerning the investors’ monthly return on investments, causing investors to believe their returns were real and delaying the discovery of the fraud. In reality, many investors had lost all of their investments, and the total loss due to the fraud was more than $8 million.
This case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark D. Lytle is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae.