The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina announced a guilty plea by a buy-here, pay-here dealer who federal officials said ran a Ponzi scheme that resulted in more than 60 investors suffering net losses in excess of $8 million.

According to a news release distributed on Wednesday, Willard Timothy Sutton pled guilty to one count of mail fraud for running the scheme. At sentencing later this year, Sutton faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years, a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release.

The Department of Justice said Sutton will also be required to pay restitution to victims.

According to court documents and other information presented in court, between approximately 2019 and 2023, Sutton operated a largescale Ponzi scheme in connection with an investment program offered through Greenville Auto World, LLC (GAW), a dealership located in Greenville, N.C.

Officials said GAW was a BHPH dealership.

Between approximately 2012 and 2023, as part of an investment program sponsored, promoted, and administered by GAW, Sutton sold BHPH finance contracts to outside investors through direct solicitation, referrals, and word-of-mouth advertisement, according to prosecutors.

Beginning in approximately 2019, officials said Sutton falsely and fraudulently led BHPH investors to believe that their investments were safe and secure, and that GAW was collecting sufficient repayments from loan customers to be able to fully pay the principal and interest owed to them.

In truth, officials said GAW was collecting millions from investors, but it did not have the means to service the debt through BHPH revenue or any legitimate business income.

Between approximately October 2018 and August 2023, the FBI estimated that GAW collected investor funds in excess of $60 million.  However, officials said GAW’s gross receipts were a small fraction of the total.

In order to conceal GAW’s financial condition, and avoid the collapse of the business, officials said Sutton operated the BHPH program as a Ponzi scheme in which he would (in a typical transaction) sell a legitimate loan contract to one investor and then sell one or more false and fabricated versions of that same contract to other investors without their knowledge.

Officials said Sutton then used the proceeds of the fraudulent sales to pay off earlier investors.

Among other things, officials said Sutton forged loan customer signatures to the fake contracts and, in some instances, provided fake title documents to investors to convince them that their investments were appropriately secured.

Then in 2022, in order to generate additional funds to meet GAW’s mounting debts to investors, officials said Sutton solicited some BHPH investors to help finance GAW’s vehicle inventory.  Sutton falsely and fraudulently represented to these investors that he was using their funds to purchase vehicles when, in fact, Sutton was using their funds to conceal and perpetuate the Ponzi scheme, according to law enforcement.

“Over the course of years, instead of helping so-called investors, this defendant bilked his victims out of millions of dollars of their hard earned money,” acting U.S. Attorney Daniel Bubar said in the news release. “Fraudsters should know that they will be held accountable for their crimes in the Eastern District of North Carolina.”

Robert DeWitt, the FBI special agent in charge in North Carolina, added, “Mr. Sutton ran a local business for many years, purporting to help those with poor or no credit get much needed vehicle loans. When he ran into financial trouble, rather than admitting his business was failing, he resold those loans over and over again to outside investors to protect his own reputation at the expense those who trusted he was legitimately investing their hard-earned money.”