Orange County man arrested for defrauding elderly couple of $5 million
According
to the indictment, Walthall convinced the couple to invest in a partnership
called "Advanced Recycling General Partners" which was supposed to
search for and extract gold from old mines in the Imperial Valley, Nevada, and
Brazil.
Walthall
told the couple that he had invested over $3 million of his own money over the
past decade researching the gold extraction process and that, as partners, the
couple would receive a salary and that expenses would be approved beforehand by
each partner.
According
to the Los Angeles bureau of the FBI, the majority of the money was used by
Waltham for his own gold investments and personal expenses, including alimony
and child support for his four children and purchasing multiple vehicles and
other luxury items. This includes a hyperbaric oxygen chamber worth
approximately $60,000 and a $10,000 payment to a film school.
When FBI
agents arrested Walthall, they found approximately $500,000 in gold coins under
his bed. They also seized three vehicles he'd purchased with investor money,
including two Ford Excursions and a Ford 450 pick-up truck.
When
agents arrested Walthall last week, they conducted a consensual search of the
residence and found approximately $500,000 in gold coins under his bed. Agents
also seized three vehicles Walthall had purchased with investor money, to
include two Ford Excursions and a Ford 450 pick-up truck.
Source: scpr.org