Accused Ponzi schemer appears in federal court

    Federal Prosecutors say a suburban Philadelphia man stole millions of dollars from investors in a Ponzi scheme. The Kennett Square financier made his first appearance today in federal court.

    Federal Prosecutors say a suburban Philadelphia man stole millions of dollars from investors in a Ponzi scheme. The Kennett Square financier made his first appearance today in federal court.

    Federal authorities say 38-year-old Donald Anthony Young bilked investors of about 26 million dollars to pay for his lavish lifestyle.

    Young used the money to purchase homes in Florida, Maine and Pennsylvania.

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    Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Gray says Young falsified financial statements for his clients and paid out bogus earnings using money coming in from new customers.

    “This is the standard multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme and we’ve seen numerous of these even in the past several weeks with similar amounts of losses, tens of millions of dollars in losses. In this case over a period of nine years.”

    Gray says 9 million dollars has been recovered from the sale of his homes and assets.

    Young is now living with his wife and two children in a rented apartment in Palm Springs, Florida.

    If convicted, Young will likely be sentenced to between 10 and 15 years.

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