Utah County man indicted in Ponzi scheme, alleged murder plot

A Lindon man, already accused of running a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, is now facing charges alleging that he tried to persuade a jail inmate to kill his investors.

A six-count superseding indictment handed up by a federal jury Wednesday details the accusations against Jeffrey Lane Mowen, including the new counts of solicitation to commit a crime of violence, witness tampering and retaliating against a witness. These counts are added to the three counts of wire fraud filed against Mowen, 47, in April.

According to the indictment, Mowen is accused of running a fraudulent investment scheme involving two primary investors who believed he was a successful trader in foreign currency and also involved in an international real estate leverage program from 2006 through 2008.

The indictment states Mowen tried for two months to persuade a fellow Davis County Jail inmate to kill four of the investors involved in his scheme, in order to keep them from testifying against him.

One of the investors, identified as T.F. of Utah County, had used his own money, as well as funds entrusted to him by seven other individuals, to invest with Mowen. T.F. was told he could expect a 33 percent return per month, according to court documents. Another investor was offered an 8 percent return. Mowen repaid the investors using "old and new investor funds," giving them "the false and misleading impression" that the returns came from the foreign currency and real estate ventures, the indictment states.

Mowen also perpetuated the alleged fraud by trying to prove his wealth through buying "over 200 high-end antique, classic and modern vehicles, including cars, trucks, trailers, motorcycles, three-wheelers and other vehicles," the indictment states. He is also accused of using investor funds to pay himself and his wife, and to pay for food, travel and various credit-card expenses.

Over the course of two years, T.F. and other investors lost approximately $18 million. When the returns on investments made by T.F. stopped in October 2007, Mowen fabricated a number of excuses to "lull T.F. into a false sense of security," court documents state. Mowen allegedly told investors that he put money into gold certificates that couldn't be liquidated until later and that he planned to invest the cash and gold certificates in a New Zealand bank that was shown to be shell company that lacked banking capabilities.

T.F. received no interest payments after October 2007, and payments to his other major investor, another Utah County man identified as J.B., stopped in May 2008.

In May 2009, Mowen was arrested in Panama and flown back to Utah where he was jailed. Prosecutors say he tried to persuade his cellmate, who was scheduled to be released last month, to kill T.F., J.B. and two other investors.

e-mail: emorgan@desnews.com