SEATTLE — A former local couple has some trouble in paradise and the FBI on their tails.
Perry and Rachelle Griggs used to live in Marysville and Everett. They are now considered fugitives and being sought for prosecution under a federal indictment brought in Hawaii, alleging the pair operated a Ponzi scheme, FBI special agent Fred Gutt in Seattle said Tuesday.
The Griggses were married in Snohomish County in 1992. She had previously attracted the attentions of the Snohomish Regional Drug Task Force, records show. He wound up in doing federal time for an investment scam he operated in California, starting in 1999.
The couple on Oct. 28 was indicted by a federal grand jury in Honolulu on 13 counts of wire and mail fraud. Federal prosecutors allege that while Perry Griggs, 49, was behind bars in 2005 he formed a company called Aloha Trading, a business that supposedly engaged in commodities trading on behalf of its clients. He did his time in prisons in Nevada, Texas and California, and was housed with a large number of inmates from Hawaii, the FBI says.
Rachelle Griggs, 42, was living in Las Vegas and regularly visited her husband. She allegedly joined him in marketing the business, working with clients and signing documents.
Perry Griggs represented himself as a multimillionaire who had made his fortune in commodities investments.
As the indictment (see related) spells out, the pair allegedly took in more than $3 million from clients and duped them into believing they were receiving payments from earnings, when in reality they allegedly were skimming funds from new clients to pay earlier investors.
The investors raised money by obtaining cash-out mortgages on their homes or liquidating retirement accounts.
The Griggses lost 83 percent of the cash invested on their clients’ behalf, regulators say. In addition the pair allegedly spent about a third of the money they were given on luxury car leases, a Hawaiian rental home, jewelry and chartering a private jet.
Perry Griggs was freed from prison in September 2008 and lived in Las Vegas with his wife until January 2010, when they both dropped from sight.
Aloha, indeed.
The FBI wants to talk with anyone who may know where they are now. Perry Griggs is described by the FBI as having “expensive tastes in sports cars, high-end clothing, cigars and golf.”
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