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NC man swindled $1 million from retirees to pay for trips to Vegas casinos, feds say

A 50-year-old man in North Carolina convinced more than 20 victims to put their retirement savings in his hands only to run the funds dry, according to federal prosecutors.

Now he’s going to prison.

Mark Colin Ramsey was sentenced to more than five years in prison and ordered to pay close to $1.1 million in restitution, prosecutors in the Western District of North Carolina said in a news release Friday.

He pleaded guilty to securities fraud last year.

“Mark sat in our living room, looked us right in the eyes and promised us that our money was safely invested with him,” one of his victims said in court filings. “There is not one single day that goes by that I am not continuously impacted by Mark’s cold and manipulative crime.”

Ramsey is from Graham — just east of Greensboro — but much of his scheme took place in Asheville from 2008 to 2013, according to court documents.

During that time, prosecutors said he ran at least six investment companies — with names like Hypertrend and Good Liiving — despite not being registered to sell securities in North Carolina.

“Ramsey induced victim-investors by falsely representing that their money would be used to make legitimate investments,” the news release states. “He also promised his victims that they would receive a guaranteed return on their investments, and that their principal investments would not be at risk.”

Victims were given “fake investment agreements and fabricated stock certificates” to convince them of his legitimacy, prosecutors said.

In reality, the investments weren’t registered as required by state law and Ramsey was using the funds to make “Ponzi-style payments to other investors and fund his personal life style,” the news release states. That included meals and trips to casinos in Las Vegas, according to a bill of indictment filed with the court.

Preying on the vulnerable

Many of his victims were near retirement age or already retired, prosecutors said in court filings.

“Several of the victims were high school- or associates’ degree-graduates with little or no investment experience, and several said that defendant met with them in their homes when he stole their money,” court filings state.

In one instance, a couple met with Ramsey in 2012 to ensure their investments were secure before the husband had surgery, according to court documents.

“[My husband] feared that he would not pull through surgery and wanted to make sure that I would be OK if the Lord called him home,” the widow said. “Mark’s response to my husband still angers me to this day. Mark looked [my husband] in the eyes and said, “Don’t worry . . . [she] won’t have a thing to worry about. She’ll be fine!”

The victim’s husband died from complications with the surgery and she was “financially devastated,” prosecutors said.

Ramsey fears going to prison

In a request for a lesser sentence filed with the court, Ramsey’s defense attorneys said “things spiraled out of control” and he feels “a great deal of remorse.”

“While he is very frightened of going to prison — and that fear is even more acute during the current pandemic — he knows that the fear he has experienced does not come close to all of the anguish he put his victims through,” court filings state.

Upon release from prison, his attorneys said Ramsey plans to live with his parents and work to pay his victims back.

“Over the past months as his case has worked its way through your court, Mark and I have had many frank discussions about his bad choices and his regrets as well as how he intends to right those wrongs,” Ramsey’s father said in a letter to the court. “Thinking about, planning and preparing for a future where he can make the victims whole is foremost in his mind. Please have no doubt about that. It is his obsession.”