Two men have been indicted in New York on federal criminal charges in connection with a water vending machine Ponzi scheme that allegedly swindled investors out of more than $200 million, the Department of Justice said Thursday.
The two men were also hit by the Securities and Exchange Commission with civil charges of violating antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws in connection the same scheme.
Ryan Wear, 49, of Everett, Washington, is accused of “raising more than $200 million from investors by selling them water vending machines that, in many cases, did not exist, and paying promised returns through new investor money,” the DOJ said in a press release.
Wear, who is the former owner and operator of a company called Water Station Management, is charged with securities and wire fraud. His company was forced into bankruptcy last August.
The indictment against him in U.S. District Court in Manhattan says that many of the people swindled in the scheme were retail investors and military veterans.
