Screenshot of Johanna Michely Garcia of MJ Capital Funding, that was punished onDec 3, 2024, to 20 years behind bars in a Ponzi plan.
Source: MJ Capital
A Florida feminine that begged responsible in a Ponzi plan that introduced in nearly $200 million was punished Tuesday to 20 years behind bars.
Johanna Garcia, 41, of Broward County, received the maximum possible sentence for one matter of conspiracy principle to commit twine scams and mail scams. Twenty- 8 varied different issues from her cost have been disregarded, in keeping with court docket filings in united state District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Judge Jose Martinez moreover punished Garcia to three years of monitored launch and a $100 distinctive evaluation, plus further restitution that can definitely be recognized March 3, in keeping with the occasion docket.
Garcia managed MJ Capital Funding, which fraudulently obtained capitalists to cash its supposed firm of giving short-term, high-cost fundings known as vendor money mortgage, or MCAs, authorities district attorneys acknowledged in a information launch.
She and her accomplices made “false statements and fraudulent representations” to capitalists regarding the nature of their monetary funding and simply how the money will surely be utilized, the district attorneys acknowledged.
Investors have been knowledgeable that their money will surely cash MCAs which returns on their monetary funding will surely be paid from the revenues of the MCA firm. Garcia and her accomplices wrongly assured substantial returns at a yearly value of 120%, in keeping with the cost.
But her agency “made few loans and failed to earn anywhere near the profits it needed to pay the investors the promised returns,” district attorneys acknowledged in Tuesday’s launch.
“As a result, Garcia paid investors by running a large Ponzi fraud scheme, paying existing investors using new investor funds while misappropriating millions of dollars for her own personal benefit.”
The unlawful conspiracy principle, which occurred in between October 2020 and August 2021, netted on the very least $190.7 million. Of that full, capitalists shed nearly $90 million, district attorneys acknowledged.
In 2021, capitalists in MJ Capital submitted a authorized motion implicating Wells Fargo Bank of serving to the scams plan by stopping working to comply with its very personal anti-money-laundering plans. The monetary establishment in March 2023 consented to resolve the match for $26.6 million, Law360 reported.
Garcia’s companion, Pavel Ramon Ruiz Hernandez, was butted in August 2022 and begged responsible in April 2023 to 1 matter of conspiracy principle to commit twine scams. He was punished in September 2023 to 9 years and a couple of months behind bars, plus 3 years of monitored launch.
Prosecutors acknowledged Tuesday that after MJ Capital was closed down by the FBI and the Securities and Exchange Commission, Garcia, Ruiz Hernandez and others launched a brand-new, comparable Ponzi plan in autumn 2021.
Garcia led this brand-new plan from its start, “up until her arrest [in August 2023], and after, while in Bureau of Prisons custody,” in keeping with district attorneys.
The brand-new plan– using entities known as New Beginning Global Funding LLC and New Beginning Capital Funding LLC, to call just a few– engaged Garcia and her companions informing capitalists that they will surely be moneying enterprise fundings.
“In truth, the money raised was used to pay off previous investors, and fund Garcia and her coconspirators’ lifestyles,” district attorneys acknowledged.
In aNov 27 punishing memorandum, Garcia’s attorneys really helpful that Ruiz Hernandez was effectively actual chief of the plan. They moreover stated that Garcia’s succeeding conduct by way of New Beginning, “though deeply misguided and plainly wrong, was motivated by a desire to pay back her former investors.”
The UNITED STATE Attorney’s Office, in its very personal memorandum submitted Monday, declined that characterization and prompted the court docket to condemn Garcia to 240 months’ jail time.
“The evidence overwhelmingly shows that Garcia was the leader/organizer of the two Ponzi schemes that defrauded over 15,400 victims out of an actual loss amount of nearly $90 million,” district attorneys composed.
Attorneys from the Federal Public Defender’s Office standing for Garcia didn’t rapidly react to’s ask for speak in regards to the sentence.
— ‘s Dan Mangan added to this file.
