JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office records show that a Jacksonville real estate broker accused of running a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme is behind bars after police searching for years.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a civil complaint against Cedric Griffin in May 2023. The complaint accused of scamming 103 victims into investing nearly $5.9 million into his businesses, “G8 Equity” and “G8 RE Capital,” from January 2020 to at least December 2021 in what the government said turned out to be a Ponzi scheme.
He also had an active warrant for organized fraud in state court and around the same time, was supposed to show up in court for a hearing in another criminal case involving grand theft, but never showed.
Now after two years of searching, JSO has arrested Griffin. He faces five counts of grand theft, one count of organized fraud, and a civil lawsuit brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The charges are related to the allegation that Griffin, as a real estate broker, failed to pay five other agents a total of about $250,000 they were owed in commission, according to police.
News4JAX spoke with Assistant State Attorney Adam Duso about the case in 2023. He said over 50 people including professional athletes and politicians in the Jacksonville area invested from $10,000 to a million.
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Duso told News4Jax two years ago that Griffin spread the money among more than 60 bank accounts. He also said most of the money became untraceable because of large cash withdrawals.
Shannon Schott, a Jacksonville attorney unaffiliated with this case said now that Griffin is back in jail, he will have to stay there.
“He failed to appear, and therefore his bond was forfeited, and he had a no bond capias, which is basically a warrant where you cannot be given any bond, even if you would otherwise be entitled to one,” Schott said.
Schott said Griffin’s victims may file civil lawsuits to recover their losses, but under Florida law, many assets cannot be seized in financial crime cases.
“Mr. Griffin will have to sit and wait for his day in court, because he does not have a bond but he certainly could hire the best attorneys locally, or across the country, using some of these funds until this case resolved, the ability for the state of Florida to get that money or get that restitution is going to be very limited,” Schott said.