JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is looking for a man accused of running a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme.
Investigators say Cedric Griffin swindled dozens of people who invested nearly $6 million in what they thought were real estate deals.
Griffin is facing five counts of grand theft, one count of organized fraud, and a civil lawsuit brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
“I think Mr. Griffin needs to turn himself in,” said assistant state attorney Adam Duso.
Duso said prosecutors spent nearly 18 months preparing to take Griffin to trial on five counts of grand theft. The charges are related to the allegation that Griffin, as a real estate broker, failed to pay five other agents a total of about $250,000 they were owed in commission, Duso said.
Four days before the theft trial was supposed to begin, Griffin didn’t show up to a hearing. His attorney told News4JAX he was surprised. Duso said that not long before the hearing, a judge signed another warrant for Griffin on a charge of organized fraud related to the alleged Ponzi scheme. Griffin was expected to be taken into custody on the fraud charge at the pre-trial hearing for the theft case.
According to the state attorney’s office and a civil law lawsuit from the SEC, Griffin convinced dozens of people to invest their money with him in 2020 and 2021, promising high returns on real estate deals that never actually happened.
“Over 50 individuals in the Jacksonville area invested with him in amounts ranging between $10,000 to $1 million,” Duso said.
Among them, he said, were people associated with professional athletics in Jacksonville and local politicians.
According to the SEC, Griffin raised close to $5.9 million from 103 investors in total.
Duso said Griffin spread the money among more than 60 bank accounts.
“It’s clear that he was spending the bulk of the money that he received through the scheme on his own personal luxuries in life,” he said.
He said most of the money has become untraceable through things like large cash withdrawals.
“Unless we were to find that money later on in the investigation, we would be relying on his ability to pay restitution, which I’m uncertain to what extent we’re going to be able to recompensate the victims through that process,” Duso said.
He said investigators believe Griffin is still within the state Florida because he has ties here. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is asking anyone who knows where Griffin is to contact them at 904-630-0500 or JSOCrimeTips@jaxsheriff.org. Anonymous tips can be made to First Coast Crime Stoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS.