Jason Michael Meyer describes himself as something of a business wunderkind.
In an article the 33-year-old Rochester resident published on the Internet, he says he’s a passionate marketer, a producer of elite concerts and public events, the president of “nine companies worldwide.” He describes himself as a 12-year veteran in commercial real estate development with a master’s in business administration from the University of Wisconsin.
Federal investigators describe the Florida native as a suspect in a scheme that allegedly defrauded investors of at least $6.5 million through a variety of get-rich-quick ploys, ranging from business financing mechanisms to triple-A bonds and gold-mining interests.
Authorities seized boxes of financial records, cell phones and computer equipment from Meyer’s residence and car last month.
Allegations of fraud have dogged Meyer for the past few years in civil suits filed in Wisconsin, Florida and New York. Investors and creditors have piled up judgments against him totaling $21.3 million, and a claim for at least $3 million more remains pending in a New York federal court.
The biggest victory was won by Bernard H. Butts Jr., an attorney in Miami. In a civil suit filed in December 2009, Butts said he agreed to put up $2.3 million to help fund a gold-futures contract for Meyer, who claimed it would produce 40 percent monthly returns.
Butts claims Meyer was supposed to pay him 25 percent a month for a year, but failed to do so. Butts won a judgment of $19.75 million, and his attorney filed a complaint with the Minnesota Attorney General alleging that Meyer was running a Ponzi scheme.
In a separate but similar matter, the Florida Bar Association is seeking to revoke the law license of a longtime attorney who did business with Meyer, resulting in losses of $420,000 for four investors. An expert testified that “Meyer’s scheme” met the definition of a Ponzi fraud, because the money from incoming investors was used to pay off earlier ones.
And a company called Cash Flow Financial alleges in a federal lawsuit filed in New York that Meyer and some associates defrauded it of $3,065,000 in a scheme that supposedly involved an Ecuadoran gold-mining deal and “historic Mexican bonds.”