Joey Stanton Dodson, 55, of Indio, California, was charged in an indictment filed in the Northern District of California with four counts of wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud and three counts of money laundering. Dodson was arrested this morning for his alleged operation of a Ponzi scheme involving approximately 50 victims and more than $15 million.

The indictment alleges that between November 2012 and May 2015, Dodson used several related companies and partnerships, collectively known as Citadel Energy, to fraudulently raise $15 million by soliciting investments in three limited partnerships that would purportedly provide water-related services to oil and gas companies in North Dakota. The indictment further alleges that Dodson induced investors by making numerous materially false misrepresentations about these partnerships, including regarding how the investor funds would be used, the amount of his compensation and the status of a potential acquisition of the partnerships by a private equity firm.

According to the allegations in the indictment, Dodson routinely commingled the monies between the three partnerships, which resulted in investor funds being used to pay the expenses of unrelated projects. Furthermore, the indictment alleges that Dodson misappropriated and diverted more than $1.3 million of investor funds for his own personal benefit, which included repaying former investors in unrelated Dodson-led investments, gambling activity, his wife’s BMW and other expenses.   back...