A Corcoran man was sentenced Monday to more than 10 years in prison for stealing $2.1 million from investors who thought they were funding indoor recreational vehicle parks in North Dakota and Montana.
Ronald David Johnson, 51, was convicted by a jury in June on nine counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering.
He received 126 months in prison from Judge Wilhelmina Wright in U.S. District Court in St. Paul, and also was ordered to pay restitution.
Johnson pitched investors on an idea to build indoor RV parks for oil-field workers at a time when the petroleum industry in North Dakota was booming and housing was scarce.
The RV parks would be in large climate-controlled warehouses where oil-field workers could park their RVs and use shared amenities like laundry, vending machines and on-site storage. Investors would get a percentage of rental income and other revenue generated from the RV parks.
Instead, Johnson used investors' money to repay earlier investors and also to fund his personal indulgences, including vacations and vintage Chevrolets; a 51-acre cattle farm; and a 17-acre island on Mink Lake in Maple Lake, Minn.
"Ronald Johnson abused the trust of his victims only to enrich himself at their expense," Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said in a news statement.
Mike Hughlett • 612-673-7003
