EASLEY — The Easley businessman at the center of an alleged Ponzi scheme involving his company, Atlantic Bullion & Coin, Inc., was charged last week with mail fraud.
Ron Wilson, a former Anderson County councilman and owner of AB&C, turned himself in to U.S. Marshals at the federal courthouse in Greenville last Wednesday, but posted a secured $1 million bond later that afternoon.
State attorney general Alan Wilson filed a complaint last month alleging that AB&C was operating as a Ponzi scheme, in which earlier investors are paid with money brought in from new investors. Investors had been led to believe that they were investing in silver, the attorney general said, but no silver had been bought.
Officials have said Wilson is accused of defrauding more than $70 million from investors in at least half of the country’s states.
If convicted, Wilson faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.