JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is asking for your help to track down a man accused of conning investors out of nearly six million dollars in a Ponzi scheme.
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A lawsuit filed by the SEC says Cedric Griffin primarily targeted the African American community in Jacksonville It also states that he managed to get 103 people to hand over nearly six million dollars in just one year.
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“He was the nicest gentleman, always completely impeccably dressed, the way he spoke, he was very business-like, very compassionate,” a person who worked in the same building as Griffin told Action News Jax anonymously. “And I am literally in shock. I cannot believe that.”
They asked us to conceal their face and video.
“I’m flabbergasted,” they said. “That just goes to show you, you can’t judge a book by its cover.”
A lawsuit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission says Griffin promised investors high monthly returns ranging from 10 percent to 33 percent interest from his work flipping houses and buying property spanning from at least January 2020 to December 2021.
“It seems like you’re getting your money every month, but what you don’t realize is the payoff you’re getting from a million-dollar investment is partly your money coming back to you,” Action News Jax law and safety expert, Dale Carson said.
In Carson’s 20-year experience as an FBI agent, he worked with Ponzi schemes. And he said it’s important to remember, they are often too good to be true.
“When someone says you can make 33-percent of your money, you better question that,” Carson said.
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From October 2016 until September 2022, Griffin was a licensed real estate broker in Florida. The complaint states he touted his 20 years’ experience getting big returns for clients.
The SEC says investors learned about his business by word of mouth and through his church in Jacksonville.
“The first investor is going to tell everybody she knows, he knows how to make more money, and that’s what lures people into this false sense of profit,” Carson said.
Now, police say he’s on the run.
“When scammers do these things, they always have an escape route in advance,” Carson said.
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In March of last year, the Jacksonville State Attorney’s Office charged Griffin with three counts of grand theft in connection with his real estate businesses. The arrest warrant states three real estate agents each made commission on a piece of property. And all the money from the sale went directly to griffin’s business bank account– Premier Coast Realty, LLC. Later that month, Clay County deputies arrested Griffin on that warrant. But Griffin bonded out on all three counts, which was about 15,000 dollars each.
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If you know where Griffin may be, police is asking you to contact JSO or Crime Stoppers to remain anonymous.
