A Miami man has been ordered to pay $3.9 million for operating a Ponzi scheme that took money from retirees and three of his own relatives, the Securities and Exchange Commission said.
Mark Anderson Jones operated a $10 million pyramid scheme in which he persuaded at least 21 investors, including three relatives, to put their money into bridge loans for Jamaican businesses, the SEC says. He promised 15 percent to 20 percent annual returns on their money.
While operating the scheme that started in 2007, Jones, formerly of Boston and now of Miami, took some investors to Jamaica and showed them property they were supposedly investing in. But in 2015 he had his attorney admit to some investors, when they began questioning him, that new money was being used to pay older investors, the complaint says.
Many of the investors were retirees who are now in financial straits because of his actions, the SEC says. In addition to paying other investors, he also used the money to pay personal expenses.
A judge in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts ordered Jones to disgorge $3.6 of profits he gained and pay $236,000 in interest and a $160,000 civil penalty.