‘Uniform’ Ponzi Swindler Richard Elkinson, 78, Sentenced To 102 Months In Federal Prison; 20-Year Scheme Collapsed After Arrest Of Bernard Madoff

Richard Elkinson, the 78-year-old Ponzi swindler whose promissory notes scheme gathered $29 million over 20 years, has been sentenced to 102 months in federal prison.

Elkinson resided in Framingham, Mass., and told investors he was in the business of providing uniforms to the government and other entities.

But it was all a scam that lured investors with promises of outsize returns of between 9 percent and 15 percent in less than a year, federal prosecutors, the FBI and the SEC said.

The scheme began to collapse in late 2008 after investors — motivated by the publicity the Bernard Madoff Ponzi began to receive  — “started seeking more information and documents about the uniform business,” the office of U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz of the District of Massachusetts said yesterday.

Madoff, himself a senior swindler at the helm of a long-running Ponzi caper, was arrested on Dec. 11, 2008.

Although Elkinson initially lulled investors in early 2009 with a variety of excuses about why he wasn’t making payments, he later fled Massachusetts. Elkinson was arrested at a Mississippi casino in January 2010. Investigators said they discovered evidence that the con man had an affinity for gambling and had conducted “a total of more than $3.7 million in currency transactions over $10,000” at Las Vegas casinos dating back to 1998.