3 Omaha men – whose Ponzi scheme cost investors $4 million – will serve between 3 and 5 years

http://www.omaha.com/money/omaha-men-whose-ponzi-scheme-cost-investors-million-will-serve/article_4e48f969-28a5-56ee-ae4a-cf244a682f53.html

POSTED: FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 2015 1:00 AM
By Russell Hubbard / World-Herald staff writer

Three Omaha Ponzi scheme operators were sentenced Thursday to federal prison terms of between three years and five years, after 114 investors lost $4 million in a failed commodities trading gambit that hid losses and deceived regulators.

Jonathan Arrington, described by prosecutors as the leader of the fraud, was sentenced to five years in prison during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Omaha. Michael Kratville was sentenced to four years and Michael Welke to three years.

The men pleaded guilty this year to federal criminal charges in connection with a plan to invest in commodities and foreign currencies. Prosecutors said they used investor proceeds for personal expenditures, paid off old investors with money from new ones and reincorporated in Wyoming after the Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance caught on to them.

All told, 114 people lost an average of $40,000, with at least one married couple out $500,000 and others with losses of about $250,000. The operation that did business as MJM Enterprises and Elite Holdings from 2005 until 2008 swept up money from Omahans who were well-known to the promoters — in some cases, intimates.

FULL story at link. How many years did the Wall St bankers get???