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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL /CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER.COM
U.S. Marshals and the U.S. Coast Guard seized the vessel Semisub One and its co-founder Curtiss Jackson on Jan. 6, 2023.
A Honolulu man was convicted by a federal jury Thursday for his role in a more than 10-year-long investment fraud scheme, defrauding investors of over $28 million.
Curtiss E. Jackson, 71, held numerous corporate positions, including CEO, at Semisub, a boat-touring company, where he “fraudulently solicited investments,” according to court documents and trial evidence. He was convicted of securities fraud, conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, witness tampering and obstructing an official proceeding while on pretrial release.
According to a U.S. Department of Justice news release, Jackson and a co- conspirator “falsely told investors for years that the prototype vessel, Semisub One, was ‘weeks’ or ‘months’ away from beginning operations.” Jackson also falsely stated that the company had agreements with government agencies and a private investment firm to build and sell a fleet of vessels, the release said.
The investor funds were used by Jackson and his co-conspirator to pay for luxury homes in Hawaii and California, a Mercedes-Benz vehicle, vacations, psychics and cannabis, according to the release.
During the investigation, Jackson also sent his co-conspirator a death threat through a text message with a link to a video called “Death of FBI Informants” that included “clips from a television series depicting the deaths of several characters who had cooperated with the FBI,” the news release said. The day before his bond revocation hearing, Jackson attempted to flee U.S. territorial waters on the Semisub One vessel.
Jackson is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 23. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count, as well as a consecutive 10 years for committing an offense while on release. Any sentence will be determined by a federal District Court judge after the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors are considered, the release said.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and IRS Criminal Investigation. Trial attorneys Jennifer Bilinkas, Kate McCarthy, Christopher Fenton and Matthew Reilly of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret Nammar and Aislinn Affinito for the District of Hawaii willprosecute the case.