Waunakee Man Pleads Guilty to Investment Fraud Scheme
MADISON, WIS. – Scott C. Blader, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Patrick O’Connor, 61, Waunakee, Wisconsin, pleaded guilty today to wire fraud and money laundering. The wire fraud and money laundering charges stem from O’Connor’s involvement in a large-scale investment fraud scheme involving a financial loss to multiple victims in excess of $9,000,000.
Beginning in 2011 and continuing until 2018, O’Connor solicited funds from several investors for investment in an entity he created entitled “Madison Financial Services.” As part of his solicitations, O’Connor made various material misrepresentations to investors regarding Madison Financial Services.
O’Connor represented that Madison Financial Services would invest all of the investors’ funds into a TradeStation online brokerage account. O’Connor represented that he would use the TradeStation account to actively trade purchased securities and he projected an average annual return on the investment of 2% a month, or 24% annually.
In fact, O’Connor used a large portion of the investors’ funds for his own personal expenses, including expenses related to his real estate development business and to repay other investors. Of the funds that O’Connor actually deposited into his TradeStation accounts and actively traded, he either lost or withdrew the vast majority of the funds and rarely generated any profit.
Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwi/pr/waunakee-man-pleads-guilty-investment-fraud-scheme