Robert L. Holloway, a California investment manager, has been sentenced to 225 months in prison for orchestrating a $33 million Ponzi scheme in Utah.
Holloway, 57, of San Diego, California, was found guilty on Aug. 5, 2014, after a seven-day jury trial, of four counts of wire fraud and one count of making a false income tax return in federal court in Salt Lake City.
According to evidence presented at trial, Holloway served as the chief executive officer and managing partner of US Ventures LC between May 2005 and April 2007. During this time, he recruited investors by making false representations, including that US Ventures used proprietary trading software that was consistently profitable.
Holloway generated and distributed reports to investors showing false daily returns on their investments. Between October 2005 and April 2007, contrary to the returns shown on the false reports, US Ventures lost more than $10 million in trading, and the “profit” figures on the investor reports were entirely fabricated.
US Ventures raised more than $33 million from investors for its purported trading activities. Holloway made “profit distributions” to investors from funds solicited from new investors, and he misappropriated investors’ funds for a variety of personal expenses, including supporting his then-wife’s eBay business and purchasing hundreds of thousands of dollars of jewelry.
Holloway was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby in federal court in Salt Lake City. In addition to the prison sentence, Judge Shelby also ordered Holloway to pay $15.2 million in restitution.
The case was investigated by the FBI’s Salt Lake City Field Office and the IRS-CI’s Las Vegas Field Office, with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission providing assistance in the investigation. The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Thomas B.W. Hall of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason R. Burt of the District of Utah.
Defendant: Robert L. Holloway
Criminal Charges: four counts of wire fraud and one count of making a false income tax return
City and State: Salt Lake City, Utah
Date: 5 August 2014
Sentence: 225 months in prison
Dollar Amounts: $33 million in scheme, $15.2 million in restitution
Related Federal Cases
Key Facts
- State: Utah
- Category: White Collar Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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