Henry Thomas Hammond, Investment Fraud Scheme, Florida 2010

Henry Thomas Hammond, 61, of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., formerly of Liberty, Mo., was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison without parole for orchestrating a $2,266,325 investment fraud scheme that preyed on eight victims between June 2009 and July 2010. U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough handed down the sentence in Kansas City, Mo., ordering Hammond to pay full restitution to his victims.

Hammond pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud on January 13, 2017, admitting he promoted a phantom investment program he knew or should have known was a sham. The scheme centered on false claims of access to a so-called Strategic Investment Program tied to the Maranatha Platform—a purported European trading network linked to the Maranatha Church. In reality, the program and others promoted by Hammond and his unnamed co-conspirator were nonexistent.

Co-Conspirator A, who styled himself as an international financier, claimed the program used leveraged bank instruments and Collateralized Mortgage Obligations to generate massive returns. With traditional lending collapsing after the 2008 housing crash, desperate developers and investors turned to alternative financing. Hammond exploited that desperation, pushing the fraudulent program to victims who handed over their savings.

Court documents reveal Hammond was willfully blind to red flags. He repeated false promises to investors—telling them their money was secure and generating returns—while diverting funds for his personal benefit. When the scheme began to unravel in July 2010, Hammond told investors the program would not pay out and instead offered to roll their funds into a hotel development project that was never built.

Hammond’s businesses, including Longhorn Construction, Inc., Longhorn Properties, LLC, Longhorn Development Group, Inc., and North American Investment Group, Inc., were used as fronts to lend credibility to the scam. Investors were misled into believing their money was financing real estate and construction projects when, in fact, much of it disappeared into personal accounts and shell transactions.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane Pansing Brown and investigated by the FBI. U.S. Attorney Timothy A. Garrison emphasized that those who exploit economic turmoil to enrich themselves at the expense of others will face federal consequences. Hammond is currently in federal custody, serving his sentence without the possibility of parole.