Fraudster Pleads Guilty To Offense That Targeted Former Victims Of Ponzi Scheme

          CONCORD, N.H. – Ronald Mason, age 47, has pleaded guilty to a mail fraud scheme that involved the theft of more than $625,000 from five New Hampshire residents, announced United States Attorney Emily Gray Rice.

          In October 2004, Mason was sentenced by a United States District Court in Texas to 33 months in prison and three years of supervised release.  While Mason was serving that sentence, Scott Farrar, and Farrar’s business associate, Donald Dodge, who operated under the name Financial Resources Management (FRM), pled guilty in U.S. District Court in New Hampshire to a Ponzi scheme that involved the theft of more than $30 million from FRM’s customers.  Farrar and Dodge falsely promised some of FRM’s investors that their money would be used to finance the construction of a condominium complex in Concord, New Hampshire. 

            After being released from prison, Mason absconded from supervision and a warrant was issued for his arrest.  Mason used a false last name, Budalucci, and moved to Concord, New Hampshire.

            Mason caused letters to be delivered by the United States Postal Service to more than 100 people whom Farrar and Dodge defrauded by falsely promising to invest their money in the same condominium project in Concord.  The letter invited these victims to participate in a plan by which additional condominiums would be constructed and sold.  Three former victims responded to the letter and met with Mason.  Unaware that Mason was a fugitive from justice, the victims provided more than $475,000 to Mason over a 30-month period because he falsely promised that their money would be used to build and sell condominiums and for other income-producing real estate projects in New Hampshire.

            During the same period, Mason borrowed more than $150,000 from two other residents of New Hampshire by concealing his status as a fugitive and falsely promising that he would repay the loans with money he would receive from incoming-producing real estate projects in New Hampshire.

            A sentencing hearing  is scheduled for September 13, 2016.

            The case was investigated by the United States Secret Service and the United States Postal Inspection Service.  The case was prosecuted by AUSA Robert Kinsella.

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