A Valley man will spend more than a year in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud in what prosecutors described as a Ponzi scheme that lured unwitting investors into the area’s booming housing market.
Jere Parkhurst’s clients will walk away with losses ranging from several thousand dollars to $1 million, with few holding out hope for restitution. He will spend the next 13 months in a federal penitentiary.
Parkhurst’s operation is familiar to anyone who lived in the Valley during and after the housing boom. But his attorney claims the details of the federal government’s case point to the fact that he was just another ignorant real-estate investor eager to cash in on the trend of flipping historic houses.
Read more: Phoenix-area man gets prison in housing scheme
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