Eden Prairie fraudster admits stealing $10M from clients, leaves court under armed guard
December 16, 2014 by Paul Walsh, Star Tribune
A Twin Cities financial planner has admitted to swindling more than 50 people in several states out of at least $10 million, using some of the money on gambling and sex-oriented entertainment in Minnesota and Las Vegas.
Sean Meadows, 41, of Eden Prairie, pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in St. Paul to mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering as part of his years-long scheme through his financial planning and asset management firm, Meadows Financial Group (MFG).
Hearings in this case have brought out reactions so emotionally charged from some of Meadows’ victims that armed security guards were needed to protect the defendant and his attorney as they left court after Wednesday’s plea.
Unlike earlier proceedings, the plea hearing came off with “no threats that I heard, and no one approached Mr. Meadows in a threatening or intimidating manner,” said defense attorney Mark Larsen, who noticed some of his client’s victims in attendance.
Afterward, Larsen said, “we were escorted out and downstairs by court security,” a precaution that he said is rare.
The earlier proceedings were “marred on every occasion by comments, hissing and threats directed against Mr. Meadows by victims in courthouse hallways and also within courtrooms,” Larsen told the court in a case filing Monday.
Immediately after one hearing convened in early October, Larsen’s filing continued, “Mr. Meadows was approached in the courtroom and threatened in an overt and menacing manner. The court security officer gently persuaded the threatening individual to leave the courtroom.”
While acknowledging the damage that Meadows inflicted on the duped investors, Larsen pointed out Thursday that people need to realize “they are in a court of law, not in a court of sidewalk justice.”
Prosecutors say Meadows persuaded his victims in Minnesota, Indiana, Arizona and elsewhere to tap their retirement and other savings accounts by promising high rates of returns — up to 10 percent annually.
But the investments were never made. Instead, from 2007 to April 2014, he is accused of operating a classic Ponzi scheme, using money from new investors to make interest and/or principal repayments to existing investors.
Prosecutors added that Meadows used his clients’ money to pay expenses on personal investment properties and personal credit card bills. He made payments to his spouse, bought a vehicle, traveled to Las Vegas, gambled at casinos and online, and spent more than $100,000 on sex-oriented entertainment.
At the time of his indictment in August, he was ordered to forfeit to the federal government possessions that include Rolex watches, a pleasure boat, a 1968 Camaro and real estate in St. Paul, Minneapolis, White Bear Lake, Mound, River Falls, Wis., and Atwater, Minn. The list also included his primary residence on Sand Ridge Road in Eden Prairie.
One of the scheme’s victims, 65-year-old Susan Gosz, said she learned in May that Meadows was being investigated for fraud and that all of her retirement money was gone — more than $200,000 that she had turned over to him since 2008. Gosz said Meadows also persuaded her and her husband to refinance their Golden Valley home and invest the money. That money also is gone, she said.
Meadows remains free on bail pending sentencing, which has yet to be scheduled. A defense filing with the court this week estimated that Meadows faces nearly six years in prison or more, along with fines and a number of years of supervised release. In a similar filing, prosecutors envisioned a minimum sentence topping 15 years in prison and far steeper financial punishment for Meadows.
