Garrett Elder, who has been accused by the Justice Department of defrauding at least 130 victims of up to $34 million through his companies, Tycoon Trading and The Daily Bread LLC, was set to appear in court this week.
A tentative plea deal has been reached between Elder, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Alaska Division of Banking and Securities, but today the hearing, scheduled for Friday, was postponed until May.
Must Read Alaska has learned the Department of Justice is settling for only a five-year sentence for Elder, who used a Ponzi-type scheme that involved his family and friends as victims, among others, to scam Alaskans.
However, some victims are dissatisfied with this proposed sentence. They have pointed out that the average investor with Tycoon Trading and Daily Bread Fund lost over $200,000 in this scam, which they believe warrants a harsher sentence.
While some investors in Tycoon Trading and Daily Bread Fund were able to recover their investments after becoming aware of the scheme’s fraudulent nature, others were not as fortunate to see what was coming. About $25 million is what the Department of Justice estimates the remaining injured parties were bilked out of and not made whole.
The scam started in 2016 and lasted until October, 2022. He started with between $10,000 and $20,000 from his own parents, which he was supposed to invest in stocks and foreign currencies. Elder lost all of the funds.
And yet, even as he continued to hemorrhage money, Elder raised more from other people to pay he told his family and friends he was a successful trader and got them interested in giving him money to invest. He was never registered with the State of Alaska as a securities trader and he concealed from investors his losing streak. Instead, he created false financial reports showing positive returns.
By March of 2018, Elder had less than $15,000 in his trading account, and he told his investors that their investments had failed. He did not tell them, however, that he had falsified their financial quarterlies.
In 2019, Elder created a new fund, called The Daily Bread Fund, LLC. He paid out dividends to some of the investors to make it look like he was successfully investing their money.
Meanwhile, there were lavish trips by Elder and his friends, and he kept brining in new investors.
“Defendant also used some of the victims’ money on personal expenditures, including real estate investments, vehicles, a boat, a camper, bicycles, tools, and jewelry,” the U.S. Attorney said.
Some of his victims are well-known business owners in Anchorage who don’t want their names revealed because they are embarrassed that they were bilked.
In total, the amount of funds transferred to defendant via Tycoon Trading, The Daily Bread Fund, and related entities is presently estimated to be approximately $30 million to $34 million from 138 victim investors.
By October 2022, although some money was distributed back to certain investors, defendant had lost the majority of investments while trading, resulting in approximately $25 million in losses to victims.
Garrett Elder agreed to the government filing an information charging him with wire fraud. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He has been cooperating with the Justice Department and has convinced the attorneys that he will help find any remaining assets, but the reality is, he will have little ability to do that since he appears to have lost all the money.
The plea deal hearing has been moved to May 15. Elder is represented by public defender Ben Muse. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael James Heyman and Seth M. Beausang are representing the government.
In October, Alaska securities officials ordered Elder and his Tycoon Trading firm to pay a civil penalty of $7.43 million and restitution of a the same amount, plus interest, for issuing and selling unregistered securities and for acting as an investment adviser without being registered. There’s no evidence Elder has made good on that fine.
Five years for $10,140,000 (minus interest on the $14,860,000 or $7,430,000) he doesn’t have to return out of the $25,000,000 owed? Slightly more than $1,000,000 a year to have to spend in jail, halfway house and/or house arrest is a small price he’ll have to pay for his crime. Where do I sign up?
Ak Fish: Really? Are you sure?
Have you ever served time in a prison? There are lots of bad dudes there. How many times would you be willing to be sodomized, beaten to a bloody pulp, required to perform sexual acts, and otherwise be abused, in exchange for that one million dollars a year that you want to sign up for? Think about it. Really?
You have vivid fantasies. This isn’t actually about Garrett Elder being sodomized or beaten; it’s about miscarriage of justice.
And yeah, you watch too much television.
Tell me how you haven’t been to prison without telling me. Good grief, ak1st, get off the porn and cop dramas. That doesnt happen often in most prisons even to the Chesters. This guy is gonna do just fine locked up.
Fire.
You obviously are unaware of what happens in prisons in this country. And how often abuse occurs. It’s just as bad as what you read about it. Unless you are in a gang or have the means to buy protection you are fair game. And wealthy arrogant men are not immune from abuse.
I don’t speak as a former inmate. I speak from having been in the criminal Justice system for over 25 years.
You want to trade a year in most prisons for a million dollars? Ok by me. But you will earn every nickel. And will never be the same. So go ahead and “sign up”.
I don’t believe you.
Uh huh. That is what I call wild exaggeration at best.
Strangely enough, I am there almost daily and don’t see that.
As a true Believer, it disgusts me to see in recent years these Alaskans masquerading as “Christians” and taking advantage of other people. Garrett Elder and others creating massive harm, thieving and defrauding with light penalties. I feel for the honest, hard working people that were defrauded by Garrett.
Perhaps this is not a convenient time ⌚ you know…
Well. There is one Courtroom all of the dead will stand before oneday. And That Judge
is a real Judge. Unless this mister sincerely repent for his coveting, thieving, lying, adultery, idols, disrepecting parents, I’d rather stand before a human judge and recieve my
discipline, shame
here than be judged by the ten commandents.
Our employers must exercise more caution, most workers if not all work paycheck to paycheck and they can’t afford a business owner bellying up or falling short from poor investing and ignoring that “gut feeling” that all get before making bad decision that some are
better at listening to it..
-Moreover-
Thats why christian employees ought to pray for their employer’s success and protection (even for the unchristian employer.) scripture tell us in our leaders success we might have our success. In their failure we have no
more job and looking for new employer
Rules for the elite are different than for the rest of us.
So this dirtbag was able to run the biggest fraud operation of the sort in Alaska’s history, at least $25 million remains missing, 138 Alaskans have had their retirement plans completely upended or at least radically trimmed down, and the proposed sentence if five years?
Huh.
Stand by, Alaska, this is effective notice to other scammers that our state is wide open for them to ply their trade stealing from Alaskans with fantastic ROI in it for them and slap-on-the-wrist sentencing if they get caught…
And just looking from the outside in, it seems there were some insiders who were able to benefit by having scammed funds distributed back to them all along the way and others who were tipped off before the walls caved in which allowed them to get “their” money back at the last moment – or more likely the money of later investors who’re now left holding the bag.
I think I’d want to know more about who those insiders are and how much they’d taken in if I were one of the bag holders.
What a very sad trainwreck and what an outrage this must be for the victims.
Are you an impacted victim? Wondering how much of a flaming turd you’ve been hit with?
It’s tentacles reach far and wide and you don’t. Of 138+ victims how many do you know? The DOJ has expressed tacit comfort w/ the fact that few of you know each other. Do you also find it odd that Suzanne knew about the postponement yesterday but you didn’t find out about it until it arrived in your email inbox 90 seconds ago?
There is much to know and I will help. My posts will arrive within a few minutes of the hour and each will introduce an aspect you’ll find interesting.
Alaskans were compromised by Garrett Elder. You’re in the process of being compromised again.
Back soon.
Socrates, I was just looking in the CourtView files and it must have just been filed, because it was not there earlier. But I understand your point about the Justice Department not looking out for victims. – sd
There is an as yet unearned element of respect for due process that I will recognize in this process. Information shared will be provided w/ documented proof or it will be posed as a question for you to consider.
Garrett Elder rec’d a cease and desist order on October 14, 2022 from the State of Alaska’s Division of Banking and Securities. He recently sold one of his investment companies to an individual you probably have never heard of. Might that person be a co-conspirator? Does it sound like he’s no longer conducting business?
Below is the third version of the State’s order against Garrett Elder. Remove the hyphen at the beginning of the hypertext link to follow the trail:
-https://www.commerce.alaska.gov/web/Portals/3/pub/Tycoon%20Trading%20Order%20No.%2022-87-S%20THIRD%20INTERIM.pdf?ver=2022-11-15-110740-703
In the flames of the failing Tycoon Trading Garrett Elder started several other companies. One of them was Mizuna Capital LLC. Mizuna Capital had an odd zen vibe to their website but now
-www.mizunacapital.com redirects to “pigeon harmonica” as the new owner tweaks the site.
The question is, who is that new owner?
Mr. Jordon Trice appears to be based in Puerto Rico though most of his documentation implies that he’s based in Reno, NV. For value rec’d Garrett Elder provided Trice management, ownership and control over Mizuna Capital LLC on Feb 2, 2023. That would be four months after he rec’d a cease and desist notice from S/A Banking & Securities. Apparently some of us can interpret cease and desist orders in a flexible way. From this link you can see that Mr. Trice took over Mizuna Capital as operated from the exact same address as Tycoon Trading off of Old Seward Highway in Anchorage, AK.
-https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_ak/10169255
Look at the top/right of that page to confirm Garrett’s involvement.
Now take a peek at this site documenting Trice having moved from Garrett in Anchorage to Reno.
-https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_nv/E30098722023-0
Trice’s homespun websites are riddled with grammatical errors that make his claim of heading a $500mm investment firm seem a little suspect, eh? Look to you like he and Garrett both may have been better at self promotion than anything else? Consider the following…
Here’s Trice at Aspen Advisors along w/ his nonsensical “managing partner” bio:
-https://www.aspenalphaadvisors.com/jordon-trice
Scroll to the bottom of the page under “knowledge base” and click on that link. At the bottom of that page is a video from Mondial Consulting LLC. Who’s Mondial? That would be Trice again, this time using an apparent third party to confirm what he wants you to believe. Want proof? Look at the bottom of this page and you’ll see that the VP of Investor Relations for Mondial Consulting LLC is Jordon Trice.
-https://mondialconsultingllc.com/about-us
There’s more. Much more.
We are all scammed by the government’s paper money backed by debt and a DOJ & FBI politicized against Conservative Citizens.
Tycoon Trading LLC was established as a family owned entity on 9/8/2012 with ownership stakes as follows:
Garrett Elder – 33.33%
Chris Elder (Garrett’s father) – 16.67%
Amy Elder (Garrett’s mother) – 16.67%
*Standard Investments, LLC – 33.33%
*Standard Investments LLC was established on 8/20/2012 with 100% ownership by Garrett’s brother Blake Elder. Company ownership was modified on 11/19/2012 such that Blake and his wife Natalie each held a 50% stake in Standard Investments LLC.
According to the DOJ’s “information” document there were three phases to Tycoon’s founding. They were:
– Phase 1
Family members pool somewhere between $10k-$20k in initial funding and may have each had some input on how it was invested. During stage one the family learned that Garrett did not have any skills in the ForEx investment arena. Failure known amongst family members.
– Phase 2
Garrett informed others that he was a Foreign Exchange trader and did not tell them that he was horrible at it. He collected approximately $500,000.00 from contacts outside the family and failed again however, money from new investors allowed him to repay his family their losses from Phase 1. Garrett falsified documents to investors but was traveling the US by motorhome w/ his new wife as Phase 2 wrapped up and difficult questions couldn’t be asked in his absence. None of the outside investors turned him over to the authorities.
– Phase 3
The first and second failures of Tycoon Trading taught Garrett Elder the arts of deception and self promotion, and prepared him for the largest affinity scam in Alaska history. During Phase 3 he collected more than $34mm, lied to everyone about everything and filtered money out of the company to fund personal interests. A helicopter to fish the Kenai as traffic could be a hassle, corporate jets, extended vacations for himself and others, race car and race truck events with him at the wheel, etc. None were off the table. He learned to answer questions in a manner more likely to kindle interest and he learned how to lie to prospective investors. When asked about the health of the fund he would provide a fabricated spreadsheet illustrating how much you’d have made if you’d have invested $150k w/ him a year or two prior. That spreadsheet was an absolute fabrication but no one suspected that this wunderkind that all their friends knew and trusted was also a serial predator with zero concern for consequence or accountability.
– DOJ reports that there was a first, second and third catastrophic failure of Tycoon Trading yet they treat this as a first offense. That speaks to poor policing of the system but definitely not a first offense.
The big question though surrounds the family.
They knew that Garrett cratered their money in Ph 1. They knew he cratered other people’s money in Ph 2. Tycoon Trading’s 2018 Biennial Report indicates that all other members of the family had erased their names from the company docket.
Now another question for you. If the rest of the family knew what he had done in Ph 1 and Ph 2 was their exodus simply rats leaving a sinking ship? Had they nothing to suspect despite the fact that as owners they had access to all company accounts and records up until Feb 2, 2018 when the new LLC report was filed?
Is the family complicit?
Are the family co-conspirators?
To what degree were members of the family involved?
The DOJ has told you that the majority of the losses stemmed from him simply being “a very bad trader”.
Not exactly.
More to follow.
The DOJ needs to continue to investigate this case, there is more to the story, where is the missing 9 million?
Garrett has destroyed lives with his actions. Bernie Madoff got a 150 years, Garrett needs to do his time or make people whole with the money he has likely hidden away.
And yet -we’re paying for a public defender. Every single thing about this is wrong.
Comments are closed.