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nitpicker

(7,153 posts)
Tue Feb 14, 2017, 08:50 AM Feb 2017

Local Businessman Pleads Guilty in $70 Million Ponzi Scheme

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdoh/pr/local-businessman-pleads-guilty-70-million-ponzi-scheme

Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Southern District of Ohio

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, February 10, 2017

Local Businessman Pleads Guilty in $70 Million Ponzi Scheme

DAYTON – William M. Apostelos, 55, formerly of Springboro, Ohio, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court today to charges related to a $70 million Ponzi scheme that defrauded nearly 500 victims. Specifically, Apostelos pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and conversion of funds from an employee benefit fund.

Apostelos and his wife, Connie, also known as Connie Coleman, were indicted in October 2015. According to court documents, beginning in 2009, and continuing for at least five years, the couple and others orchestrated a Ponzi scheme in the Dayton area in which nearly 480 investors lost more than $20 million collectively. Apostelos received $70 million in investment funds in total.

William Apostelos operated and oversaw multiple purported investment and asset management companies in the Dayton area, including WMA Enterprises, LLC, Midwest Green Resources, LLC and Roan Capital. He falsely reported that he held a degree in mathematics and was a registered securities broker. Connie Apostelos also operated and oversaw multiple companies in the Dayton area, including Coleman Capital, Inc. and Silver Bridle Racing, LLC. These companies were allegedly operated through improper use of investor funds to William Apostelos’ companies.

The couple recruited investors from 37 states to invest in WMA and Midwest Green, telling the investors that their money would be used for acquiring stocks or securities, purchasing real estate or land, providing loans to business and buying gold and silver. Rather than investing the money, the couple used it to pay for personal luxuries. According to court documents, William Apostelos was spending $35,000 per month on his wife’s horse racing company and $400 per month on Victoria’s Secret lingerie.

When the defendants became late on interest payments to the victims, they advised that their bank account had been hacked, a bank mistakenly failed to wire payment and/or the deal the victim had invested in was temporarily on hold.
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