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 between 5 percent and 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 nonexistent “straw” homebuyers.
Banks also foreclosed on numerous homeowners after Jaguar Group LLC’s affiliates failed to forward payments to its lenders, which held the promissory notes on the properties.
Four Reinholdt’s employees were named in the 40-count indictment handed up last year, but their cases have been resolved, and Reinholdt was the only one to stand trial, said Mike Saccone, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office.
Reinholdt faced up to 24 years in prison on each of the two main charges against him — violating the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act and conspiracy to violate the act.
He also was convicted 14 counts of theft, seven counts of defrauding a secured creditor, and nine counts of forgery.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation worked with the attorney general’s office on Reinholdt’s case.
“Criminals that defraud Colorado banks drive up the cost of home loans and other credit for all consumers,” Attorney General John Suthers said in a statement announcing the sentence.
Ann Schrader: 303-954-1967 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
