Federal prosecutors have charged a Wisconsin investment advisor with defrauding his investors by orchestrating a Ponzi scheme, Financial Advisor reports.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Wisconsin announced that 63-year-old Stanley Pophal of Wausau has been charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering.
U.S. Attorney Timothy M. O’Shea stated that beginning in 2019, Pophal solicited investors to purchase promissory notes from him with supposedly guaranteed rates of return. It was alleged that Pophal falsely represented that he was a wealthy businessman in order to lure investors into the scheme. Over a period of nearly six years, he allegedly received over $15 million from at least 120 investors.
According to the criminal complaint, Pophal did not actually invest the majority of the money he obtained from his investors but instead used it to finance an extravagant lifestyle, including the purchase of over 300 snowmobiles. “To keep the fraud scheme going, Pophal also used new investor money to make ‘lulling payments’ to previous investors to make it appear as though those investors were earning investment returns,” O’Shea said.
A report by the Wausau Daily Herald stated that Pophal told some people he was a multi-millionaire and others that he was a billionaire, according to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint in federal court. But investigators determined that he had no employment history since 2010 and his only source of income appeared to be the money he got from investors.
He also claimed to be a relative of a family that owned a ginseng farm and a fox fur farm, but an investigation showed Pophal had no relationship with the family.
Pophal was arrested last month and made his initial appearance in federal court. He was detained pending further proceedings.
Hyman Cotter PC routinely represents investors harmed when financial professionals and their firms engaged in misconduct that caused their clients investment losses. Our team includes securities fraud lawyers who have worked for large financial institutions. If you think your financial professional or firm engaged in misconduct that caused you investment losses, contact us at 312-291-4600 or through our online contact form for a no-cost evaluation of your matter.
