A Fresno man has been sentenced to several years in federal prison for operating a $9 million real estate Ponzi scheme.\u00a0<\/p>\n
U.S. Attorney Eric Grant announced that Matthew Campbell, 43, will spend 52 months behind bars for defrauding investors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Driving the news: Campbell operated two real estate investment companies \u2013 Preferred Property LLC and Ampez Rehab Investments LLC \u2013 since 2012.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He used the companies to buy, sell, build and renovate properties and to solicit investments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Starting in 2018, Campbell used his business to conduct a Ponzi scheme and used investment money to pay off earlier investors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Campbell promised unrealistically high returns to obtain new investments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
From January 2018 to October 2025, Campbell received over $9.1 million from more than 40 investors. He used at least $2.29 million in new investments to pay off old investors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Flashback: Campbell pleaded guilty on Feb. 9 to defrauding investors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What they\u2019re saying: \u201cMr. Campbell took advantage of the hard-earned savings of innocent people who were trying to secure their financial futures,\u201d Grant said. \u201cBy masking a fraudulent Ponzi scheme as a legitimate real estate opportunity, he violated federal law and exploited the trust of dozens of investors. This sentence reflects our office\u2019s unwavering commitment to seeking justice for the American People and holding accountable those who seek to do them harm.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
FBI Sacramento Special Agent in Charge Brian Tosh added, \u201cToday\u2019s sentence ensures Matthew Campbell will pay a price for his crimes, but it cannot erase the breach of trust and financial devastation families and retirees who placed their confidence in Campbell suffered. Each investor believed Campbell\u2019s claim that his legitimate real estate business could offer guaranteed returns, not knowing those promises were impossible to fulfill. The FBI is committed to investigating all allegations of financial fraud to both protect the public and ensure those who take advantage of the American people will face justice.\u201d<\/p>\n
What we\u2019re watching: Campbell will return to court on Oct. 22 for a restitution hearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Fresno man has been sentenced to several years in federal prison for operating a $9 million real…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-442654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442654","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=442654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}