DENVER—A Colorado man has been sentenced to 16 years in jail for running a commercial Ponzi scheme.
A Denver judge sentenced 39-year-old John Reinholdt II on Thursday and ordered him to pay $2.5 million in restitution.
Reinholdt was convicted in January of violating and conspiracy to violate the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act as well as theft, defrauding a secured creditor and forgery.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the state Office of the Attorney General say Reinholdt used at least 19 businesses in Lafayette to obtain loans from “warehouse” lenders using “straw” home buyers. They say he used the capital to make subprime loans with higher interest rates to consumers, and that he used money from new lenders to pay back his old ones.
