Father, son from Japan guilty in Vegas in $1.5B ‘Ponzi’ case

By KEN RITTER
Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Two former investment executives from Japan have pleaded guilty in Las Vegas in what prosecutors have called a $1.5 billion international Ponzi scheme with 10,000 victims in the U.S. and abroad. Junzo Suzuki and his son, Paul Suzuki, entered their pleas Wednesday in U.S. District Court. Each faces five years in federal prison and three years of supervised release at sentencing in May. Their attorneys didn’t immediately respond Thursday to messages. Prosecutors compared the case involving Las Vegas-based MRI International Inc. with the biggest-ever U.S. fraud cases. A co-defendant, Edwin Fujinaga, was found guilty in 2018 at trial in Las Vegas and is serving a 50-year prison sentence.