(The Center Square) – The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon announced that the former CEO of Sunwest Management and associated companies must pay over $74 million to over 1,400 victims.
John Michael Harder, 58, of Canyonville, Oregon, pleaded guilty to one of the largest financial fraud schemes in state history in 2015. He pled guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering.
When Harder conducted this fraud, he controlled a network of companies that bought, constructed and managed assisted living facilities. At its peak, Sunwest Management and its related companies owned about 300 assisted living facilities that served more than 15,000 residents.
Between 2006 and 2008, he defrauded over 1,400 investors out of about $120 million. The scheme made false promises to investors, including that they would be investing money in specific assisted living facilities and that Sunwest was a successful company. Instead, Harder laundered the money and took large portions of it to support his expensive lifestyle.
A federal grand jury in Portland returned a 56-count indictment charging Harder with mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering in 2012. Three years later, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 180 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release.
However, Harder only served just over five years of his 15-year prison sentence after then-President Donald Trump commuted his prison sentence on January 13, 2021.
The IRS-Criminal Investigation, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the FBI, and the Justice Department’s U.S. Trustee Program investigated the case. Claire M. Fay, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon, litigated the restitution in this case.