Federal prosecutors have accused Buford resident Ron Throgmartin, 57, of working with two other people to orchestrate a large-scale Ponzi scheme involving bovines and pot.
Throgmartin — as well as Galesburg, Illinois resident Reva Joyce Stachniw, 69, and Mark Ray — has been accused of getting victims to give them more than $650 million by claiming they were making short term investments in cattle, or sometimes marijuana, for more than a year, from late 2017 until early 2019.
Throgmartin and Stachniw were indicted by a federal grand jury in Colorado earlier this month, while Ray was charged in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois February 2020 for his role in the scheme.
“Most often, the conspirators fraudulently represented to victim-investors that their investments were backed by short-term investments in cattle,” prosecutors said. They also used false and fraudulent pretenses to solicit money from victim-investors for the conspirators’ Colorado-based marijuana business, Universal Herbs LLC. Other victim-investors gave the conspirators money based on false promises that investment money would be used for legitimate business activity related to cattle or marijuana, without having the investment money linked to specific investment opportunities.”
Throgmartin and Stachniw face one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, five counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to engage in more transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity. They made their first appearance a magistrate judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado on May 11.
Essentially, the three people allegedly involved in the scheme are accused of getting people to pay them money, many times so they could pay off other investors but also to make money themselves.
“In all three variations of the conspirators’ investment fraud scheme, victim-investors were promised returns of approximately 10% to 20% over periods as short as several weeks,” Prosecutors said. “At no point did Stachniw, Throgmartin, or Ray tell victim-investors that they were primarily using their money to repay other investors in a Ponzi-style investment scheme, or to enrich themselves. Stachniw and Throgmartin allegedly received millions of dollars from the scheme, despite putting little to none of their own money into it.”
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General Chicago Regional Office and the FBI’s San Antonio Field Office are handling the investigation into the scheme while the U.S. Department of justice is prosecuting it.
Federal officials said Throgmartin and Stachniw face decades in prison if they are convicted. Conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank frauds carries a $1 million fine and up to 30 years in prison while the wire fraud charge carries a $250,000 fine and up to 20 years in prison and the conspiracy to engage in money transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity carries a $250,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison.
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