PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — An Oregon man was ordered to pay over $74 million to more than 1,400 victims in what state officials are calling “one of the largest financial fraud schemes in Oregon history.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon says 58-year-old Jon Michael Harder misled investors when he was the CEO of Sunwest Management, an organization that owned about 300 senior living facilities with more than 15,000 residents.
According to authorities, Harder intentionally misrepresented the risk of investing in his company which “continuously operated at substantial monthly losses.”
Oregon’s USAO reports that the former CEO admitted to the scheme, which caused more than $120 million in financial losses.
In 2012, a federal grand jury in Portland indicted the defendant for 56 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and money. In 2015, he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering and was sentenced to 15 years of prison, along with three years of supervised release.
But in 2021, former U.S. President Donald Trump commuted Harder’s sentence to time served — cutting off nine years of prison time for the Canyonville man.
It wasn’t until Friday that officials announced Harder was ordered to pay $74,062,211 to the investors affected by the alleged fraud scheme.
