PHOENIX — Victims of an alleged Ponzi scheme that snared more than a thousand people, including more than a hundred in Arizona, are still waiting for justice three years after the company was sent into receivership.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused EquiAlt, a real estate investment company, of running a Ponzi scheme. A Ponzi scheme happens when a company pays off its original investors with the investment of newer investors. Eventually, the company collapses and investors lose their money.
That’s what the SEC said was going on in Arizona and Florida.
The people who lost money, most of them retirees, want to know when they might see their money, or even see someone go to jail.
“They picked their victims very well," Tracy Nyhus said at her kitchen table. "They picked the elderly victims."
“He tells me there is no risk involved in this whatsoever," Leslie Hansen said, sitting nearby.
Nyhus and Hansen hate the word "victim" but three years after their investments were lost, they have no other word for themselves.
They went to a Phoenix-based company called Family Tree Estate Planning for advice in their retirement. The company referred them to EquiAlt, which promised an 8% return on their investment, payable monthly.
Nyhus invested $66,000 in the company, while Hansen invested $150,000.
“I'm not an investor," Nyhus said. "When somebody tells me something and I thought, well that sounds pretty good."
An 8% return wasn't astronomical, and the checks came every month for a while.
“COVID hit the world," Hansen said. "Right when we were going into lockdown I didn't get a check."
That’s right around the time more than a thousand investors got a letter, explaining what had happened to the company and their money.
“Found out that, in fact, it was a Ponzi scheme and that my money was gone,” Hansen said.
Gone from what they thought was a safe investment.
"He said this is so safe I have my mother in it," Nyhus said.
"The owner of the company called me and said my mother is invested in this," Hansen said.
That owner was Jason Wootten, and he said his mother did invest. And lost her money as well.
Wootten said EquiAlt scammed him too.
Wootten didn’t have a license to sell securities, which is what the SEC now says EquiAlt was doing.
But he says EquiAlt and its lawyers said they had cleared it.
“He confirmed for me that we didn't need any additional licensing," Wootten said.
But now the SEC says he did need additional licensing.
And when the feds shut down EquiAlt, Wootten faced his own legal trouble.
In January, he agreed to pay $1.3 million without admitting or denying wrongdoing.
“I talk with my mom, she has friends from church that she referred over," Wootten said.
"I have wonderful clients people that I genuinely care about that call up and they're so frustrated about it," Wootten said.
The money Wootten agreed to pay goes to a court-appointed receiver for EquiAlt.
EquiAlt’s been in receivership for more than three years, with the receiver selling assets like properties, cars, and watches.
But none of its victims have been paid and none of the owners have been charged with a crime.
“They had to get rid of some art and watches and cars," Nyhus said. "But they're not in jail. You know, even Bernie Madoff went to jail."
Wootten said some of the money is waiting to be sent out by the courts, but right now it's not enough to pay everyone back.
Nyhus and Hansen now have to watch every penny. Three years in, they’re doubting they’ll ever see a dime.
“Any hopes of getting it back are just kind of fading after year after year," Nyhus said.
The FBI did reach out to the victims in this case, but no charges have been filed.
The FBI wouldn’t tell 12News anything about a possible case.
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