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Man in Ponzi case to head to prison
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The Howland man at the center of a $7 million Ponzi scheme David J. Harriett
CLEVELAND
A man who operated a Ponzi scheme in the Mahoning Valley that swindled more than 200 people out of some $9.3 million must report to federal prison Jan. 27.
The U.S. Bureau of Prisons has ordered David J. Harriett, 61, of Medina, formerly of Howland, to report that day to the Federal Correctional Center in Butner, N.C., to begin serving his prison term of five years and eight months.
However, U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. O’Malley, who imposed the prison time and ordered Harriett to make full restitution, has granted Harriett’s request to travel to Mesa, Ariz., to spend time with his family.
Departing Monday and returning Jan. 13, Harriett, who has terminal cancer, will make the trip to visit his ex-wife, his two daughters and his 4-year-old grandson.
When sentencing Harriett on Sept. 28, Judge O’Malley deferred the start of Harriett’s prison time until he could complete, under Cleveland Clinic supervision, his treatment with the chemotherapy drug Sutent, which the U.S. Bureau of Prisons does not administer.
Harriett asked to be placed at Butner because it is near major medical centers at Duke University and the University of North Carolina.
At the sentencing hearing, Dr. Robert Pelley, a Cleveland Clinic cancer specialist treating Harriett, testified that Harriett likely would die within the next two years.
Harriett, who pleaded guilty to mail fraud, misrepresented to potential investors in his scheme that he had contracts to build McDonald’s and Pioneer Chicken franchise restaurants.
An aggravating factor in this crime is that Harriett used his position as a General Motors Lordstown executive to recruit investors to become Ponzi-scheme victims, the judge said during the sentencing hearing.
Harriett, who founded the Ponzi scheme known as D.J. Harriett Inc. in 1996, retired from General Motors in 2006.