Former Belmont Resident Convicted of $6 Million Investment Fraud Scheme

BOSTON – A former Belmont resident was convicted today by a federal jury in connection with a decade long Ponzi-style investment scheme in which he defrauded 15 investors of over $6 million.

John William Cranney, a/k/a Jack Cranney, 76, of El Paso, Texas, was convicted following a two-week trial of three counts of wire fraud, 12 counts of mail fraud, and three counts of money laundering. U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani scheduled sentencing for Aug. 2, 2018. Pending sentencing, Judge Talwani released Cranney on electronic monitoring and restricted his travel to El Paso County, Texas. 

From 2001 through 2012, Cranney solicited money from people with whom he had personal and business relationships and represented that he would invest their money in an investment fund or a retirement plan he said he managed. However, instead of investing the money, Cranney spent his victims’ savings and retirement on his own bills and debts to fund his declining health and nutrition products distributorship. To carry out his scheme, Cranney created shell companies that he named specifically to sound like investment funds. He also set up a sham Employee Stock Ownership Plan to convince victims to transfer their IRA and 401k retirement funds to him. Cranney’s scheme ultimately collapsed in early 2012 when he could not obtain new investment money and initial investors began demanding return of their funds.

The mail and wire fraud charges provide for a sentence of no greater than 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain/loss, whichever is greater. The money laundering charge provides for a sentence of no greater than 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000 or twice the amount of the criminally derived property in the transaction, whichever is greater. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling; Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; Kristina O’Connell, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation in Boston; and Carol S. Hamilton, Acting Regional Director of the U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration made the announcement today. The U.S. Attorney’s Office also received assistance from the Office of the Secretary of State of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the U.S. Trustee’s Office in Boston. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark J. Balthazard and Kriss Basil of Lelling’s Economic Crimes Unit are prosecuting the case.