Two New Yorkers who defrauded metro Atlantans and others out of more than $12 million face prison after a federal jury Wednesday convicted them of running a Ponzi investment scheme.
Federal prosecutors said more than 150 people fell victim to promises by Andrew S. Mackey and his common-law wife, Inger L. Jensen, that "sophisticated investors" would see returns of up to 20 percent a month through the couple's "wealth enhancement club."
Instead, between 2003 and 2007, less than a third of the money collected by the couple's Valley Stream, N.Y.-based ASM Financial Funding Corp. was invested, and all of that money was lost, prosecutors said. The remaining two-thirds of the funds was used for personal gain and to pay off intermediaries who helped recruit investors.
“The victims thought they were investing in legitimate offshore business opportunities, but it was in fact a Ponzi scheme,” U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said in a statement.
Clients were told their profits would either be reinvested or returned to them in the form of monthly payments. The payments to early investors, however, were actually a portion of the money the clients had invested, and not actual earnings.
Mackey and Jensen also issued monthly statements and tax forms showing bogus interest income, prosecutors said. For a while, the couple was able to persuade investors not to go to the authorities by promising future payouts, and warned that alerting the authorities could jeopardize those payments.
After an eight-day trial, Mackey, 62, and Jensen, 54, were found guilty on 15 of 17 charges, including wire and mail fraud. Each could receive a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million on each count. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug 21.
Brian Lamkin of the FBI’s Atlanta field office warned investors “to be cautious and to question such promises of high returns.”
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