Ray William Johnson

And he starts a new investment business with some of his other shady associates.

And they start looking for new investors.

Now, of course, Ellie can't be the face of this new company because he's been busted for financial crimes twice.

So he has to use a fake name and run the whole operation, mostly behind the scenes.

Now, it's 2021 during this time, so the pandemic is still going on.

And this gives Ellie an idea.

Why not tell investors that his company is going to use their money to invest in PPE masks and baby formula and things that are popular right now because of COVID?

And then later they go on to expand and tell investors that they're investing in first aid kits for Ukraine because then the Russia-Ukraine war becomes a big news topic.

So you can see where this is going.

And I guess this works.

I mean, people think that there's a lot of money in PPE masks and baby formula and stuff because these are things people need.

And so they start investing a whole lot of money into Ellie's business.

And pretty quickly, he's controlling $44 million of investors' funds.

But of course, he doesn't use this money to invest in PPE masks or baby formula or first aid kits for Ukraine.

This guy spends it on more dumb shit for himself.

He buys himself watches and jewelry and he buys a penthouse apartment in Florida and he spends literally millions of dollars gambling at casinos.

And another year goes by.

So it's now 2022.

And during this time, Ellie starts working with an outside investment firm to bring new investors in.

And to be clear, the people working at that firm don't know that Ellie is running a Ponzi scheme.