6 months ago
A Macon man and woman accused of stealing more than $1 million from investors in an alleged Ponzi scheme were sent off to jail in handcuffs Monday.
Gary Hutcheson and Saundra Pyles appeared in U.S. District Court Monday to answer multiple charges. Both pleaded not guilty.U.S. Magistrate Judge Claude W. Hicks said he could not set bond because he is a friend of some of the alleged victims. A bond hearing was set for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday before a different judge, and Hicks sent the two away for at least two days until that hearing.
About 50 people crowded into the small courtroom at Macon's federal court, which usually holds about 20 people.
Many of those were alleged victims of the two suspects, which included many of their friends and family members.
Carolyn Nations family invested a total of 25,000 dollars. She read a statement to the media on behalf of Hutcheson and Pyles families.
"...The families of Gary and Sandee are just as stunned and saddened as the investors, the friends and the community of the breech of trust that has been done," said Nations.
The room was so full that family members of Hutcheson and Pyles were seated in the jury box. The two suspects did not look at those family members during the brief hearing.
Federal prosecutors say the pair left town in September when the scheme apparently fell apart. They were arrested last month in Pueblo, Colorado.
They each face five counts of mail fraud and five counts of money laundering charges, according to an April 22 indictment in U.S. District Court in Macon.
Hutcheson and Pyles are accused of running a Ponzi scheme, in which money from new investors is used to pay off previous investors.
Judge Hicks told the pair they face up to 40 years in jail and 750,000 dollars in fines, but said federal guidelines usually call for sentences of 51 to 71 months on each of the two offenses.
Court records show that the alleged victims include prominent Macon businesspeople, lawyers, doctors and even the head of Macon's Regional Crimestoppers, Warren Selby.
Selby, who according to court records lost almost $20,000, says his trust was violated.
"I guess I would say I would be disappointed and surprised," he said. "When you've known someone for a long number of years and you trust them with a fiduciary responsibility that's a major responsibility."
Court records say Hutcheson and Pyles lined up investors among their family members, longtime friends and even members of an adult Sunday school class that he taught.
Retired Probation Officer Robert Hughes Jr. invested 10,000 dollars. He says he knew Hutcheson for more than 30 years.
"The real issue to me has been the loss of trust in a dear friend, but more importantly, what's happened to two great Macon families and they've been hurt to the core and you can see it today," said Hughes.
Among the dozens of names on the list: senior Bibb County judge Tommy Day Wilcox; Robert Hughes, who runs a local federal probation office; furniture company owners Bert Maxwell III and Bert Maxwell IV, Nu-Way Weiners president Spyros Dermatas, doctors William Argo Jr., Jim Chapman, Robert Edenfield, Mike Shofner and Ched Smaha; and several members of the Hutcheson and Pyle families.
Court documents alleged that in May 2006 Gary Hutcheson created the Georgia Ionics Hedge Fund and, together, he and Saundra Pyles began a Ponzi scheme. In September 2008, the two left Macon. By October, a few investors filed a civil suit to freeze Georgia Ionics funds. In April, the pair was indicted on federal money-laundering and mail fraud charges.
The civil suit was filed by Bryant Pyles, co-owner of Pyles Plumbing and Utilities. Bryant Pyles invested $320,000 in the fund. His brother, Brent Pyles, invested $90,000. Saundra Pyles' son, Bryon Pyles, invested $6,000.
Bryant Pyles is Saundra's ex-husband, and Gary Hutcheson was divorced recently from Bryant Pyles' sister, Brenda Pyles Hutcheson.
Alfred Sams, a Macon cigar dealer, put $301,000 in the fund. He also joined the civil suit.
David Stephens, an assistant U.S. attorney, said the U.S. Marshals Service and the FBI located the pair in Pueblo, where they were living for several months.
Hutcheson solicited investors in what he called a hedge fund between May 2006 and July 2008, according to the indictment. He did business under the name Georgia Ionics LLC, the indictment says.
Hutcheson "claimed to have an expertise in making investments...when in truth and fact he well knew, he had never succeeded in the field of investments," the indictment said.
According to the indictment, investors gave him more than $2.1 million. He invested more than $780,000 with two companies, lost most of it and held on to the rest of it, more than $1.3 million.
"Although the defendants did not make any profits, it was falsely represented to investors that there were profits made and that the fund was completely successful," the indictment said.
They paid about $457,000 of the investors' money back to them, pretending that it was profits, according to the indictment.
Hutcheson and Pyles took more than $1 million of the investors' money for their own use, the indictment says.
Stephens, who is based with the U.S. Attorney's Office in South Carolina, says he was asked to handle the case because the investors included some people "known to" the Macon federal prosecutors. He would not elaborate.
