On June 17, 2025, the U.S. Attorney announced a criminal complaint charging Stanley Pophal, 63, of Wausau, Wisconsin, with wire fraud and money laundering. Pophal was arrested Saturday and made his initial appearance in federal court yesterday. He was detained pending further proceedings.
According to the criminal complaint, beginning in 2019, Pophal solicited investors to purchase promissory notes from him with supposedly guaranteed rates of return. In order to entice investors into the scheme. Pophal falsely portrayed himself as a wealthy businessman. Between May of 2019 and March of 2025, Pophal received more than $15,000,000 from at least 120 investors.
The allegation is that Stanley Pophal may have held himself out as an investment advisor. SEC records contain no listing or other information supporting that Pophal ever held any securities license.
The U.S. attorney complaint also alleges that Pophal did not actually invest the majority of the money he obtained from his investors. Instead, Pophal kept the funds and used the money to live an overly extravagant lifestyle. He bought himself many luxury items including the purchase of over 300 snowmobiles. To keep the fraud scheme going, Pophal engaged in Ponzi-like scheme, and used new investor money to make “lulling payments” to previous investors to make it appear as though those investors were earning investment returns.
The alleged charges would be in violation of a number of federal and state laws. This includes violation of the Wisconsin Uniform Securities Law. This prohibits the employment of a scheme or artifice to defraud.
The charges against Pophal are a result of an investigation conducted by IRS Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The prosecution of the case is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Wegner.
You are advised that a charge is merely an accusation, and a person named as defendant in a criminal complaint or indictment is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
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