April 22, 2008
For more information contact:
Managing Assistant U.S. Attorney Dixie A. Morrow
(850) 444-4000
FINAL DEFENDANT OF NATIONWIDE PYRAMID SCHEME
SENTENCED TO MORE
THAN 12 YEARS IN PRISON
Pensacola, Florida - Gregory R. Miller, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, announced that Jerrold L. Gunn, 69, of Winnipeg, Canada, was sentenced today to 151 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $23 Million to the victims of a Ponzi scheme. Gunn was found guilty by jury in January of this year during a trial before Senior District Judge Lacey Collier to one (1) count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud, and one (1) count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Gunn turned himself to the U.S. Marshal Service on August 30, 2007, after being ordered extradited from Canada. He had been a fugitive since his indictment in June 2000. Gunn is the final defendant to be convicted and sentenced for his role as part of a multi-million dollar “pyramid” scheme, operated since at least 1997, which purported to offer high-dollar investors high yield, low risk investment opportunities through an organization titled Bridgeport Alliance. These investment opportunities were claimed to be a secret program to purchase secure U.S. Treasury obligations and leverage them to earn a return of 360% per annum and higher. These investment programs, operated under the names Hammersmith Trust and Microfund, never existed and the funds of the later investors were used to pay former investors in order to promote the fraud. Throughout the fraud the money of the investors was laundered through a number of different corporate accounts until later disbursed to the benefit of the defendants. The operation was run from offices in Bluewater Bay, Florida..
Gunn was the twelfth defendant convicted for their roles in the investment fraud scheme. One Niceville resident, William West, was tried and convicted in April 2001. West was sentenced to 136 months in prison. All of the convicted defendants were ordered to pay restitution, jointly and severally.
During the sentencing hearing, Judge Collier stated that the total loss to the victims of the Ponzi scheme was nearing $60 Million. Judge Collier sentenced Gunn to 60 months imprisonment on the first count and 91 months imprisonment on the second count, with the two prison sentences ordered to run consecutively.
This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation, Department of Homeland Security Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Florida Bureau of Financial Investigation. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle M. Heldmyer.