Alleged Jeffrey Mowen Ponzi Creates Storage Problem For U.S. Marshals Service; Huge Auction Scheduled In Utah

A Utah man arrested in Panama on Ponzi charges, brought back to the United States to stand trial and later implicated in a murder-for-hire plot owned so many cars and motorcycles that the U.S. Marshal’s Service has been given permission to sell them prior to the trial.

Jeffrey Lane Mowen had acquired more than 200 vehicles through his Ponzi, real-estate and forex scheme, federal prosecutors said. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that the U.S. Marshal’s Service had been paying $20,000 a month just to store the seized assets and that a judge agreed that the storage costs were depleting the amount of money victims would receive.

Mowen was indicted under seal in February 2009. When the indictment was unsealed April 21, authorities said Mowen was “living outside of the United States.”

That changed quickly. He was arrested just three days later in Panama “by Panamanian authorities in conjunction with the FBI Legal Attache office,” the FBI said.

Mowen was jailed in Davis County, Utah. In November, a new indictment was issued, charging him

Jeffrey Lane Mowen

with wire fraud, solicitation to commit a crime of violence, witness tampering and retaliating against a witness.

Prosecutors said Mowen, 47, of Lindon, Utah, hatched a plot while jailed to hire a fellow prisoner to kill four witnesses in the Ponzi scheme case upon the inmate’s release from prison.

The Utah vehicle auction is billed by Erkelens & Olson Auctioneers as the “Largest collection of Muscle, Collector & Exotic vehicles ever [offered] in Utah! Over 240 Units to be sold in 2 auctions.”

See a Nov. 19 story on Mowen.

Visit the auctioneers’ website.

Visit the Salt Lake Tribune.