John Reinholdt II has been sentenced by a Denver judge to 16 years in prison and ordered to pay $2.5 million in restitution for his role as ringleader of a commercial Ponzi scheme.
A Denver jury in January found Reinholdt, 39, former head of Lafayette-based Jaguar Group LLC, guilty of scheming to defraud commercial lenders from Colorado and Arizona of $3.4 million.
Reinholdt used at least 19 Lafayette-based business entities to obtain loans from “warehouse” lenders at interest rates of 5 to 7 percent, court records show.
Reinholdt used the money to make subprime loans with interest rates of at least 11.5 percent to consumers.
Starting in about 2006, Reinholdt used the money raised from new warehouse lenders to pay back older lenders. Reinholdt acquired the new loans using “straw” buyers.
Banks also foreclosed on several homeowners after Jaguar Group’s affiliates failed to forward payments to its lenders, which held the promissory notes on the properties.
Four of Reinholdt’s employees were indicted last year. Their cases have been resolved, said Mike Saccone, a spokesman for the Colorado attorney general’s office.
Reinholdt faced up to 24 years in prison on each of the two main charges — violating the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act and conspiracy to violate the act. He also was convicted on 14 counts of theft, seven counts of defrauding a secured creditor and nine counts of forgery.
Cathy Reynolds of Conifer was in the courtroom when the sentence was announced. She said she nearly lost her home to Reinholdt 10 years ago with a forged signature on a quitclaim deed.
“I’m elated,” Reynolds said. “He stole from people, and that’s wrong.”
Reynolds said Reinholdt victimized “hundreds and hundreds of people.”
