Matthew Piercey Wiki – Matthew Piercey Biography
Matthew Piercey, a Palo Cedro man accused of taking part in a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, recently made headlines by attempting to use a sea scooter in Lake Shasta to escape capture by the FBI, as CBS News reported.
Piercey was arrested, according to the Eastern District of Californa’s unsealed indictment document, on November 16, 2020, and is facing charges of wire and mail fraud, money laundering and witness tampering.
He and an associate the FBI has said was complicit in the scheme named Kenneth Winton, are accused of defrauding investors out of more than $35 million.
Age
He is 44-year-old.
Matthew Piercey Accused Ponzi Schemer
Matthew Piercey wanted for his role in an alleged $35 million Ponzi scheme, briefly evaded FBI agents trying to arrest him Monday morning by swimming into the cold water of California’s largest reservoir using an underwater “sea scooter,” federal prosecutors said.
There, he stayed in the water for nearly 30 minutes using the Yamaha 350Li submersible device before he eventually resurfaced and taken away in handcuffs. Sea scooters are motorized devices that pull users underwater at speeds of about 4 mph.
When FBI agents went to arrest Matthew Piercey, 44, of Palo Cedro near Redding on Monday, he hopped in a pickup and led them on a chase that went off-road twice, prosecutors said. He eventually stopped on the shoreline of Lake Shasta, north of Redding.
Piercey Set up Multiple Companies
According to the indictment against Piercey, the FBI is accusing him of establishing three companies as part of a Ponzi scheme:
Family Wealth Legacy LLC, which solicited investors with the promise of fixed return investment, securities investments, algorithm-based investments, cryptocurrency mining and life insurance.
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Zolla Financial LLC, which supposed to take in loans, make successful investments using algorithms and offer fixed returns based on those investments.
“Company 3,” described by the FBI as a “medical business” based in Redding, California.
His Partner, Kenneth Winton, Has Also Been Charged
According to Ken Winton’s Linkedin page, he described himself as a “transparent conversationalist” and a “Family Wealth Legacy speaker and Senior Wealth Advisor.”
The married Simpson college graduate put on his Linkedin page that he has been a wealth management advisor for Family Wealth Legacy since September of 2017, and he described himself as “a professional through and through, relatable and always influential. He has been a financial and business entrepreneur establishing successful businesses for more than 30 years.”
