A Galesburg woman was one of two individuals sentenced Friday to six years in prison for their roles in a cattle-trading Ponzi scheme that resulted in millions of dollars in victim losses.
According to court documents, from late 2017 until early 2019, Reva Joyce Stachniw, 71, of Galesburg, and Ron Throgmartin, 59, of Buford, Georgia, along with a co-conspirator, ran a Ponzi scheme by fraudulently representing to victims that their investments were backed by short-term investments in Stachniw and Throgmartin’s cattle and marijuana businesses. The victim-investors gave the conspirators money based on false promises that their investments would be used for legitimate activities related to those businesses. In actuality, the funds were used to pay earlier investors.
In August 2022, Stachniw and Throgmartin were convicted at trial of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, five counts of wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
According to court documents, the scheme – which lasted from late 2017 until early 2019 – raised about $650 million from their victims. Prosecutors have said that co-defendant Mark David Ray, formerly of Abingdon, was the mastermind of the scheme, but was substantially assisted by Stachniw and Throgmartin. A status conference for Ray has been set for Feb. 23.
In addition to their terms of imprisonment, Stachniw was ordered to pay $14,597,335.80 in restitution and to forfeit $6,013,370. Throgmartin was ordered to pay $14,597,335.80 in restitution and to forfeit $1,004,904.83. The restitution was ordered jointly and severally between the two.
Stachniw, a retired nurse, was ordered to surrender to the institution designated by the Bureau of Prisons within 15 days from the date of designation. The court recommends that the Bureau of Prisons place her in the Federal Correctional Institution in Pekin.
The FDIC-OIG and the FBI investigated the case.
