Partner in California Ponzi scheme case pleads guilty — will he flip on sea scooter pal?
One of two men charged in a suspected $35 million Ponzi scheme — not the one who allegedly tried to escape FBI agents by plunging into Shasta Lake with a “sea scooter” — pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Sacramento and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
Kenneth Winton, 67, of Oroville pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud before U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley in a Zoom video hearing.
Winton, who has been free on an unsecured $50,000 bond, is one of two men charged last month in what federal prosecutors say is a $35 million Ponzi scheme that targeted parishioners of Redding’s Bethel Church.
His business partner, Matthew Piercey of Palo Cedro, remains in the Sacramento County Main Jail without bail following a bizarre plunge into Shasta Lake as FBI agents tried to arrest him Nov. 16.
Piercey, 44, led marked California Highway Patrol vehicles and unmarked FBI vehicles on a chase through Redding neighborhoods, onto Interstate 5 and ultimately to the shores of the frigid lake, where authorities say he plunged into the water with a motorized submersible “sea scooter” and remained in the water for 25 minutes before his arrest.
Piercey’s lawyer, David Fischer, argued in a court hearing last month that his client was not fleeing the FBI but instead was afraid because he had previously been confronted by an angry investor who once was special-agent-in-charge at the U.S. State Department’s diplomatic security service in San Francisco.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Carolyn Delaney said during that Piercey could not be released from custody.
“Mr. Piercey cannot be trusted to be released,” Delaney said. “I don’t have confidence that he will appear as ordered.”
Piercey, who attended Bethel Church, is accused of targeting parishioners and bilking investors out of millions.
He has pleaded not guilty to the 31 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, attempted witness tampering and money laundering contained in a federal grand jury indictment by U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott’s office.
This story was originally published December 3, 2020 at 11:27 AM with the headline "Partner in California Ponzi scheme case pleads guilty — will he flip on sea scooter pal?."