A California man was sentenced to 20 years in prison for running a Ponzi scheme that bilked 500 investors out of
$32 million he used in part to fund his record company, federal prosecutors said.
Henry Jones, 54, was sentenced April 3 in Los Angeles, U.S. Attorney Thomas O’Brien said in an e-mailed statement. Two other defendants, a Portland, Oregon, man and a pastor from Perris, California, were sentenced in November to nine and 12 years in prison, respectively, according to the statement.
The three men solicited investments in a coal-mine venture and a purported transaction involving the sale of 20,000 tons of gold between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, prosecutors said. Conference calls on which the investments were solicited included group prayer and claims the gold transaction was “divinely inspired,” prosecutors said.
About $21 million of the investors’ money was used for Jones’s music business in Marina Del Rey, California, and to buy houses and sports cars, according to the statement. In all, investors lost $28 million, prosecutors said.
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