Florida man accused of running Ponzi scheme faces possible life sentence

WINTER PARK, Fla. - A 74-year-old Florida man could spend the rest of his life in prison after state investigators accused him of operating a multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme, officials said Friday.

What Are The Accusations?:

Investigators say 74-year-old Jerald Clawson would tell investors he’d use their money to fund bridge loans that had high rates of returns and a guarantee to at least be repaid in full. 

He would allegedly pay out a couple of those loans at 200 or 300% to build confidence and encourage people to put more money in, and then the money would dry up. 

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The investigators wrote, "based on the amount of money moving through the accounts, and the amount of money taken by or used for the benefit of Jerry Clawson, makes it virtually impossible that investors money could have been used for the purported investments."

Instead, detectives say, he was using new victims’ investments to pay other victims, and to take over a million bucks for himself for car loans, rent, and credit card payments.

What they're saying:

Attorney General James Uthmeier says this was an open-and-shut case.

"There's certainly a big difference between mismanagement, you know, potentially investing in assets that don't derive the return that people are seeking. But when you have a situation where it's clear that money is not even being investigated with any fiduciary duty whatsoever, it enables our investigators to look further and find, you know true fraudulent behavior."

Uthmeier also says the investigation is ongoing.

"We've really beefed up our resources and our financial fraud team to make sure that they have the tools, the resources, and the understanding of finance to better track criminal activity. So we certainly know how to go through bank accounts. And typically, if you can follow the money, you typically can find the crime."

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