NEWS

Ponzi scheme defendants get probation, house arrest

David Dykes
ddykes@greenvillenews.com
Gavel

Relatives of former Anderson County councilman Ronnie Wilson were sentenced Monday in federal court in Greenville for their admitted roles in hiding money from the government in the investigation of a multimillion dollar Ponzi scheme.

The judge sentenced them to probation and home confinement for hiding assets.

Wilson's wife and brother pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice by hiding assets from the government.

Cassandra K. Wilson, 66, of Woodruff, and Timothy L. Wilson, 60, of Martin, Tennessee, were indicted by a federal grand jury as part of the government's investigation into Atlantic Bullion & Coin in Easley.

Each faces five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Both have been free on bond, court records show.

Prosecutors said 798 investors in Ronnie Wilson's company — Atlantic Bullion & Coin — lost $57.4 million. Wilson, 67, is serving more than 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to various charges.

Prosecutors said the government in April recovered approximately $164,300 that had been hidden in an ammunition canister. Ronnie Wilson gave the money to his brother to keep so the former councilman would have it if he were ever released from prison, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors also said that the night before Wilson was sentenced in November 2012, the former councilman visited his brother's hotel room in Greenville and gave him $7,000 cash in an envelope.

In March 2014, Secret Service and the court-appointed receiver recovered another ammunition canister containing $172,859, prosecutors said. Ronnie Wilson gave the canister to Cassandra Wilson prior to his first sentencing hearing, prosecutors said.

Ronnie Wilson was arrested in 2012 and charged with mail fraud in a criminal complaint that alleged he misled investors about silver purchases and altered client account statements, according to court records.

Wilson offered silver investment accounts in which investors didn't take physical possession of silver allegedly bought on their behalf, according to prosecutors.

Instead, Wilson claimed to hold his clients' silver at a Delaware depository. He showed them a brochure and other documents from the depository and assured their silver would be safe there, prosecutors said.

He created fictitious account statements for clients that showed silver holdings when, in fact, he hadn't bought silver for them. Wilson also purported to trade the silver by buying at low prices and then selling at peak prices to earn profits, prosecutors said.

Those were phantom trades, prosecutors said. Wilson used the clients' money for his personal benefit and money from new clients to pay earlier clients when they requested draws on their accounts, prosecutors said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Watkins has said assets that should have been turned over to a court-appointed receiver were hidden in ammunition canisters "full of cash, secreted from the receiver's office."

Gold and silver coins also were hidden from the receiver, Watkins said.

The alleged scheme entrapped surgeons, retired textile workers, teachers and lawyers, Watkins said.

Some investors lost tens of thousands of dollars while others lost "well over" $1 million, Watkins said. A number emptied their individual retirement accounts, losing several hundred thousand dollars "that they had worked their whole lives to accumulate," he said.

Three other people have been convicted of charges related to the alleged Ponzi scheme and the hiding of assets, according to prosecutors and federal court records.