Olson. Allen sentenced for fraud

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Two Lakeland, Fla., men were sent to federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and to conspiracy to launder money in an $18 million Ponzi scheme that solicited Mahoning Valley investors.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Benita Y. Pearson sentenced Edward A. Allen, 36, to 90 months in prison, and David L. Olson, 61, to 52 months in prison.

Each man will be on supervised release for three years after prison and they are jointly responsible for more than $18 million in restitution to their victims.

Allen and Olson were partners in A&O Companies, which solicited investors in the Youngstown area and from Florida, Texas and Arizona, according to the indictment.

Investors were told A&O’s purpose was to buy residential real estate and sell it at a profit, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

But, instead, the investments were used to pay company employees’ salaries, personal expenses and purported interest payments to various investors and mortgage payments on real estate purchased on behalf of A&O by investors, court records said.

Forty of the scheme’s 100 victims live in northeast Ohio, said David M. Toepfer, the Youngstown-based assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case. The case was investigated by the FBI and the IRS.