Thomas Mitchell Johnson Jailed Again for Africa Trip Scam

Thomas Mitchell Johnson, 62, of Sherman Oaks, California, is back behind bars — not for a new conviction, but for trying to launch another scam almost the moment he walked out of federal prison. Johnson, who already served nearly eight years for defrauding a North Carolina man out of $8.7 million, was sentenced Monday to six months in federal prison for violating the terms of his supervised release by traveling to the Ivory Coast without permission — all while allegedly pitching a $50 million fraud-laced agro-business venture.

The sentence, handed down by United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner, includes six months in prison followed by two years of supervised release. Johnson, who previously lived in Burbank before being convicted in 2008, admitted last December to flouting court orders by making unauthorized trips to West Africa in April and July 2016 — just 10 days after being released from prison on July 15, 2015. His request to travel to the Ivory Coast for a supposed consulting gig on a cashew and almond processing plant had been denied by the court.

Yet Johnson boarded a flight anyway. U.S. Customs and Border Protection stopped him at Los Angeles International Airport on July 20, 2016, after he arrived from Paris — the final leg of a trip that began in the Ivory Coast. A passport review confirmed his unapproved travel. Worse, investigators uncovered a video Johnson filmed in New York City in May 2016, where he boasted that his company was “already committed on paper” to invest $50 million every six months for two and a half years into cashew and cocoa processing, claiming the venture would create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the Ivory Coast — promises that reeked of fraud.

The U.S. Probation Office filed a petition over the violations, which Johnson admitted to. Prosecutors say the unauthorized trips weren’t innocent — they were part of a pattern. “This defendant lied to his probation officer and lied to customs officials at LAX, and his violations are even more egregious because it appears that he was traveling in order to engage in another scheme to defraud,” said United States Attorney Eileen M. Decker. “Despite a lengthy prison sentence, this defendant took steps almost immediately upon release to flout the court’s authority and the law.”

The original fraud case that sent Johnson to prison was a ruinous scam involving high-yield bonds. Through his company, Zurich Capital Holdings, Inc., Johnson convinced a victim-investor to wire $10 million into an account he controlled. He blew through most of it on two luxury homes in Burbank, two Bentleys, two Mercedes Benz vehicles, and a Land Rover — all for himself and his girlfriend. Found guilty at trial of six counts of interstate transportation of stolen property and five counts of money laundering, Johnson’s criminal appetite showed no sign of slowing.

The FBI investigated the initial fraud scheme, while the U.S. Probation Office led the probe into the supervised release violations. Assistant United States Attorney Ruth C. Pinkel prosecuted the case. For Johnson, the message is clear: the feds are watching — and they’re not letting con men rewrite their second chance into another grift.