U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona and Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge Carlton L. Peeples have announced that a man from Pell City has been sentenced for his involvement in a scheme to defraud over 40 investors in his various companies. The scheme resulted in the loss of more than $4.7 million.
In April 2024, John Michael Golden, aged 48, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. As a consequence, Chief U.S. District Court Judge R. David Proctor has now sentenced him to 71 months in prison with an additional three years of supervised release.
As per the plea agreement and information presented during the sentencing, Golden was the founder and owner of three companies, namely Wolf-Tek, LLC; MountainTop Timber, LLC; and DroneTek, Inc. From January 2018 until at least October 2023, Golden executed a scheme to induce individuals to invest in his businesses. He made several false representations to the investors, such as claiming that his companies were on the verge of being sold for millions of dollars to tech giants like Amazon, he had timber leases and the ability to harvest timber for profits, and he had numerous pre-orders for drones that required capital to fulfill. Golden also provided some investors with Promissory Notes, guaranteeing them high returns on their investments within a short period, which were completely false. Shockingly, Golden even defrauded a new victim just eight days after agreeing to a plea agreement.
In order to carry out his deceptive plan, Golden resorted to pacifying his victims by sending them text messages that contained false information about the availability of their money. He went as far as making promises that the funds would arrive on specific future dates, which turned out to be untrue. This led to his bond being revoked for contacting victims and misleading them with regards to repayment. As a result of his fraudulent activities, Golden ended up swindling investors in his companies out of a staggering $4.7 million. He utilized the ill-gotten funds to repay prior investors and to cover his personal expenses.
The Alabama Securities Commission provided assistance to the Federal Bureau of Investigation during the investigation of the case. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ryan Rummage.
