{"id":172814,"date":"2026-02-11T02:32:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T02:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/172814\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T02:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T02:32:15","slug":"fresno-man-pleads-guilty-to-9m-ponzi-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/172814\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno man pleads guilty to $9M Ponzi scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">(FOX40.COM) \u2014 A Fresno man has pleaded guilty to fraud for his involvement in a $9 million investment scam, federal officials said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Matthew Campbell, 43, pleaded guilty to wire fraud for misusing millions in investor funds. The U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Eastern District of California announced the plea Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Video: DOJ alleges Texas developer targeted Hispanics in land-sale scheme<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Campbell operated two real estate investment companies: Preferred Property LLC and Ampez Rehab Investments LLC. Those companies were used to buy and sell real estate, build and renovate properties and solicit investor money.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He began knowingly falsely representing the finances of his companies in 2018, prosecutors said, and began to use investor funds to pay returns to earlier investors. Campbell used nearly $2.3 million in new investor funds to pay old investors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In all, Campbell scammed people out of $9.1 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Campbell faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 11.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Ampez Rehab Investments has a 1.25-star rating out of 5 on its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbb.org\/us\/ca\/fresno\/profile\/investment-management\/ampez-rehab-investments-llc-1126-89059154\/customer-reviews#1126_89059154_1173265\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Better Business Bureau business profile;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Better Business Bureau business profile<\/a>. It is not BBB accredited.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Four reviews left by customers last year were negative.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cIt started in June when payments were late and an email with lame excuses,\u201d wrote user William P. \u201cAfter a few emails, I received a payment on my personal account but nothing on my 401K account. Emails and phone calls yielded crickets. Never received anything in July either. I am stunned. Never [thought] I would be scammed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201c[S]ince Dec. 2024, my monthly dividend payment began to be late,\u201d wrote another user, Elaine H. \u201cSince I have invested a sizable sum in the company, I am very concerned. If I do not get my latest dividend, I am considering filing a complaint [\u2026].\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Four complaints are posted on the company\u2019s BBB profile, all submitted between May and July of last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/fox40.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX40 News.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX40 News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(FOX40.COM) \u2014 A Fresno man has pleaded guilty to fraud for his involvement in a $9 million investment&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[82680,112,114,113,82679,82678,82681],"class_list":{"0":"post-172814","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-better-business-bureau","9":"tag-fresno","10":"tag-fresno-headlines","11":"tag-fresno-news","12":"tag-investor-funds","13":"tag-matthew-campbell","14":"tag-preferred-property-llc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}