A Belle Rose man told friends he was investing their money in the market through E-Trade but was really running a Ponzi scheme, Assumption Parish sheriff's deputies said.
Deputies arrested John Michael Thibodeaux, 44, on Friday after a five-month investigation following a complaint filed by his victims. Sheriff's office spokesman Lonny Cavalier said authorities have received calls from other potential victims as well and are still calculating how much money was involved.
"We do know there's other people out there who are going to come forward," Cavalier said.
Thibodeaux had been "collecting significant amounts of money from potential victims alleging that he would invest their funds into the stock market and promising high returns on their investments," deputies said in a statement.
Cavalier added that Thibodeaux did pay some victims dividends of 10% to 14% per month for about five months, but investigators believe he was using other investors' money to make those payments instead of proceeds from actual market investments.
The victims "became suspicious when dividend payments either stopped or never started," deputies added. When they requested financial ledgers or other documents, Thibodeaux couldn't produce them, deputies said.
Thibodeaux later promised to pay the victims back but never did, leading to a complaint to the sheriff's office in December, Cavalier added.
Thibodeaux didn't have a company, Cavalier said, instead telling investors he was using his personal E-trade account to put their money in the market.
But his financial records, obtained through search warrants, showed he had no E-trade account.
"He didn't acknowledge who the investors (were), but he acknowledged he had bilked a bunch of people, and right now we're just trying to see if we can kind of put together a roadmap of who he had dealings with," Cavalier said.
He said all of Thibodeaux's known victims were his own personal friends.
Thibodeaux, 6706 La. 308, Belle Rose, was booked Friday with theft and unlawfully promoting a pyramid scheme, deputies said.