Stole Millions in Ponzi Scheme

After a five-week trial, a federal jury found Larry Bates and his family guilty of mail and wire fraud. Bates, who served in the House in the seventies, promoted his company through Christian television and radio programs. The former lawmaker held conferences predicting an economic collapse and emphasizing the need to invest in precious metals.

This led to the defendants (Bates family) running a decade-long Ponzi scheme in the buying and selling of gold and silver coins.

Unsuspecting citizens who bought into his claim are estimated to have given his company, First American Monetary Consultants, 87 million dollars. This money was to be spent on acquiring the previously stated precious metals.

Both prosecutors and the jury agreed that the evidence provided proved that the defendants kept the money for their personal use. A chunk of that money was used to acquire a 10,000-square-foot house and stock options for the family. Testimony records during the trial showed that by 2009, the fraudulent company had more than twenty-six million dollars in unfilled customer orders.

Deeper scrutiny into the company’s records showed that Larry Bates diverted more than five million dollars to the creation of International Radio Network, a Christian radio network. This was used to dupe more people into investing in the Ponzi scheme. The new customer funds were then used to try and fulfill the already existing orders which had not yet been met.

The sentencing took a long time as the Bates family lawyers argued that the losses and investors provided were inaccurate.

The former lawmaker was sentenced to serve twenty years behind bars. The Memphis federal judge also ordered 73-year-old former Democratic State Representative to pay back more than 21 million dollars to a large majority of people he and his family defrauded.

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