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Previously secret court documents that were unsealed Monday paint a portrait of rampant, lucrative, brazen and long-lasting fraud allegedly committed against both high- and low-profile victims by Paul Erickson, the South Dakota man whose Russian girlfriend has pleaded guilty to illegally acting as a foreign agent for her home country.

One of the unsealed documents is an affidavit that was filed in support of a search-warrant request last April. The affidavit said Erickson had obtained at least $2.3 million from 78 investors for several allegedly fraudulent business schemes stretching back to at least 1997, while Erickson allegedly pledged returns of up to 150 percent.

The affidavit said Erickson did not use the investors' money for the businesses. Instead, he allegedly used the money to fill his own sometimes meager bank account and to pay for personal expenses — including college tuition for Maria Butina, his Russian-agent girlfriend.