A Florida woman touted as a 'Mother Theresa' ran a $196 million Ponzi scheme, feds say

https://www.npr.org/2022/09/06/ [login to see] /mj-capital-johanna-garcia-ruiz-pavel-ponzi-florida
She said she worked miracles — not for charity, but for profit: Johanna M. Garcia connected investors with companies that needed short-term financing, promising robust returns on their money. But federal prosecutors say it wasn't a miracle; it was a lucrative Ponzi scheme.

The Florida woman is accused of perpetuating a $196 million fraud through MJ Capital Funding LLC, the company she started in the Fort Lauderdale area. Her business took in that large amount of money from more than 15,400 investors in just over a year, from June 2020 to August 2021, federal investigators say.

MJ Capital's website said Garcia was "often referred to as 'Mother Theresa' in her community." It describes her ability to help regular people generate wealth and also provide loans to small businesses through a tool known as a "merchant cash advance,'' or MCA. The website is no longer active; it is archived online.

But instead of supporting small businesses, the Securities & Exchange Commission says, MJ Capital siphoned millions of dollars to company insiders and used new investments to prop up bogus monthly "returns" of 10% — an annualized rate of 120%.