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Cindy Ellen Russell /CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER.COM
U.S. Marshals and the U.S. Coast Guard captured the semi-subwan and co-founder Curtis Jackson on January 6, 2023.
A Honolulu man was convicted by a federal jury on Thursday of his role in an investment fraud scheme that defrauded investors of more than $28 million over more than a decade.
Curtis E. Jackson, 71, held numerous positions at boat tour company Semisub, including CEO, where he “fraudulently solicited investments,” according to court documents and evidence. He was convicted of securities fraud, conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, witness tampering and obstructing an official proceeding while on pretrial release.
According to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice, Jackson and his co-conspirators “for years lied to investors that the semi-sub-prototype vessel was ‘weeks’ or ‘months’ away from entering service.” Mr. Jackson also falsely stated that the company had contracts with government agencies and private investment firms to build and sell fleets of vessels, the statement said.
The statement said Jackson and his co-conspirators used the investors’ funds to buy luxury homes in Hawaii and California, Mercedes-Benz cars, vacations, spiritual services and marijuana.
During the investigation, Jackson also sent death threats to his co-conspirators via text messages containing a link to a video called “The Death of an FBI Informant.” The video “included clips from a television series depicting the deaths of several characters who cooperated with the investigation,” the FBI said in a news release. The day before his bail revocation hearing, Mr. Jackson attempted to flee U.S. waters in a semi-subwan boat.
Mr. Jackson is scheduled to be sentenced on September 23. He faces up to 20 years in prison on each charge, and consecutive 10-year sentences if he commits the crime while on release. Sentence will be determined by a federal district court judge after considering U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other legal factors, according to the release.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the IRS Criminal Investigation Service. Trial attorneys Jennifer Bilinkas, Kate McCarthy, Christopher Fenton, and Matthew Riley of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Margaret Namar and Aislin Affinito of the District of Hawaii will prosecute the case.
