Nevada woman sentenced to 10 years for $7M Ponzi scheme

Yahoo

2 days ago

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A federal judge sentenced a woman to 10 years in prison for orchestrating a $7 million Ponzi scheme and obstructing the government's investigation into it, a release from the Department of Justice said Monday.
Anna Kline, formerly Jordana Weber, 35, of Sparks, Nevada, previously pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud. A federal judge sentenced her to 120 months in prison.
The judge also ordered Kline to serve three years of supervised release and pay $3,403,000 in restitution.
According to court documents, between April 2017 and July 2019, Kline owned and operated several shell companies that falsely offered lending services to customers, typically small business owners seeking high-value loans, often more than $100 million.
As part of the scheme, Kline required that the victims pay up to 5% of the loan total amount as a 'fee' before it was funded. After the 'fee' was paid, Kline did not give the funding for the loan and gave the victims 'bogus' explanations for why the loans were delayed.
Some victims were also given fake documents, including bank statements, that 'showed' the shell companies had sufficient money to fund the loan.
During the scheme, Kline and her significant other used the 'fees' paid by the victim for their daily living expenses and numerous lavish purchases, including several luxury vehicles, high-priced artwork, and vacations.
Some of the 'fees' were also used to pay back previous victims of the fraud.
Documents show at least six victims transferred around $7 million to Kline.
Kline was arrested on charges related to the scheme in July 2019. While released on bail, Kline provided the government documents that purported to be text messages from Kline's significant other, appearing to show threats toward Kline and insinuating that the partner was primarily responsible for the scheme.
A forensic review of the document revealed it to be fake. Further investigation showed the Kline presented the fake report to a family court in California as part of a custody dispute between Kline and her partner.
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