BEAUMONT, Texas (CN) - A Kansas attorney faces up to 10 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to running a $2.5 million Ponzi scheme in Texas. Clifford Roth, 62, of Leawood, Kan., pleaded guilty to interstate transportation of money taken by fraud.
Prosecutors say Roth traveled to Beaumont in November 2007 and solicited investors to buy bank holding company stock of an Oklahoma bank, which would open a branch office in Beaumont. Dozens of investors from Beaumont, Port Arthur and Houston paid $2.5 million to a title company Roth controlled in the Kansas City area.
But the FBI said Roth used the money to pay personal expenses and to repay previous investors in another scheme. The bank acquisition never occurred.
Roth is free on bond. No sentencing date has been set.
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