Ponzi scheme nets Nashville man 4 years in prison

Friday, July 1, 2011, Vol. 35, No. 26

NASHVILLE (AP) — A former financial adviser has been sentenced in Nashville to four years in prison for mail and securities fraud.

Thirty-five-year-old Jeffrey L. Cassman was sentenced for bilking more than $500,000 from family, friends and members of his church in a Ponzi scheme.

Cassman spent some two years as a fugitive and was on the most-wanted list of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation before he was captured in Guatemala in 2010.

Prosecutors said Cassman lied to clients beginning in 2003 about how he would invest their money and the status of their investments.

Cassman pleaded guilty last December.