West Covina man sentenced to prison for Ponzi scheme

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A West Covina man was sentenced Monday to 11 years and three months in federal prison for running a Ponzi scheme that brought in about $4 million from more than 107 victims.

Ruben Gonzalez, 34, was also ordered to pay $2,200,771 in restitution to his victims, whom he lured into his investment scheme by promising “guaranteed” annual interest rates as high as 120%, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

Gonzalez, who is a Mexican national, was sentenced by United States District Judge Percy Anderson. He was arrested in October 2009 after the FBI searched his West Covina business, New Golden Investments Group, also known as NGI Group, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Gonzalez was indicted in May, and on Sept. 17 he pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud, one count of money laundering and one count of misuse of a Social Security number, the statement said.

He admitted to advertising his investment scheme in Spanish-language newspapers and on Spanish radio stations, targeting the Southern California Latino community, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Gonzalez told investors their money would be used in real estate developments, commodities such as gold and silver and a gold mine in Mexico, it said.

But instead, he used the majority of newer investors’ money to make payments to other investors, the U.S. attorney’s office said. Gonzalez also admitted to taking more than $400,000 of investors’ money for himself.

-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles