St. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig sentenced a man who ran a refrigerant-based Ponzi scheme for almost a decade to 14 months in prison and ordered him to repay $287,000 to victims.
From October 2014 to May of 2017, Robert F. Rothluebbers, now 68, solicited investments by falsely claiming that he would use the money to purchase bulk of R-22 refrigerant at a discounted rate.
He would then resell the refrigerant to contractors and others at a 50% profit. Rothluebbers claimed that the gradual phaseout of R-22 would enable him to increase investors’ profits…