Metro Area Man Sentenced For Operating Ponzi Scheme

A White Bear Lake man was sentenced to seven seven and a half years in federal prison for a Ponzi scheme he operated for years. Randy Miland, 63, had been previously convicted of various financial fraud schemes and still owed restitution for those crimes.

Acting United States Attorney Gregory G. Brooker announced the indictment of one count of mail fraud and money laundering in June 2016. Miland pleaded guilty to the two charges in September 2016. Miland received his 90 month sentencing in U.S. District Court in St. Paul on Tuesday.

“Randy Miland is a serial scam artist whose trail of swindles has now led him straight to a lengthy prison sentence,” said Minnesota Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothman, whose agency regulates investment securities at the state level, in a statement. “Over and over again, he stole people’s life savings with his fraudulent schemes. By stopping these scams, we are protecting Minnesotans in the financial marketplace.”

According to a press release, from 2010 through 2014, Miland fraudulently solicited more than $500,000 from ten investors. He told them that he would use their money to invest in futures and other legitimate investments. In reality, he used their money to pay personal expenses, including court-ordered restitution payments to victims of his prior scams and to make Ponzi-type payments of purported investment returns to other investors.

Miland concealed material facts from his new victims, including the fact that he had been twice convicted of fraudulent conduct, that the Minnesota Board of Chiropractic Examiners suspended his license, that he was forbidden by the Minnesota Department of Commerce from offering or selling securities, and that he still owed more than $1.5 million in restitution to victims of prior schemes.

In 1999, Miland was sentenced to 55 months in prison for theft by swindle and ordered to pay more than $1.5 million in restitution to the victims. As of May 2016, he still owed those victims nearly the entire amount of restitution ordered. In 2006, Miland was convicted in federal court of fraud, for which he was sentenced to 41 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $250,000 in restitution to the victims. He currently still owes approximately $124,000 in restitution to the victims of his 2006 federal case

“IRS Criminal Investigation remains committed to uncovering investment fraud schemes and bringing to justice those who prey on investors for their personal financial gain,” said Special Agent in Charge Shea Jones of St. Paul Field Office IRS Criminal Investigation, in a statement. “Today’s 90 month sentencing of Randy Miland shows that committing investment fraud will result in severe consequences.”

Miland will have to pay $214,517 in restitution from the latest crimes and will be subject to three years of supervised release.