Sacramento, California – A man from California who tried to evade arrest by jumping into a lake with an underwater scooter was declared guilty on Thursday of fraud, money laundering and witness manipulation in relation to an investment fraud scheme of $ 35 million, federal prosecutors announced.
Prosecutors say that between 2015 and 2020, Matthew Piercey, 48, from Shasta County requested funds to investors and used money for several personal and commercial expenses, including the purchase of two residential properties.
He received investors around $ 8.8. Millions of the $ 35 million invested, according to a statement published by the Office of the United States Prosecutor for the Eastern District of California.
When the agents He tried to arrest him In November 2020, Piercey led them to a car persecution before throwing their vehicle and fleeing to the frigid Lake Shasta with what was later identified as a submarine submarine device Yamaha 350Li.
“Piercey spent time out of view under water, where the police could only see bubbles,” federal prosecutors wrote in judicial documents that called him a risk of escape.
He left the lake after about 20 minutes and was arrested. The submarine device was a sea scooter or a motorized device that extracts users under water at speeds of approximately 4 mph (6.4 kph).
Piercey tried to dissuade investors and witnesses to respond to the citations of the grand jury and after his arrest he used the coded communications of the jail to lead two people to get rid of a U-Haul storage locker he had rented, according to the statement of the Department of Justice.
A FBI search in the locker increased a wig and 31,000 Swiss francs, or approximately $ 37,000.
Piercey faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each electronic fraud, postal fraud, witness manipulation and money laundering count. His sentence is scheduled for September 4.
