Northern California business man who used underwater scooter in lake to evade arrest pleads guilty to investment fraud

SACRAMENTO A California man who tried to evade arrest by jumping into a lake with an underwater scooter pleaded guilty Thursday to fraud money laundering and witness tampering in connection with a million stake fraud scheme federal prosecutors broadcasted Prosecutors say that between and Matthew Piercey of Shasta County solicited investor funds and used the money for various personal and business expenses including the purchase of two residential properties RELATED One partner attempted bizarre underwater escape The other just admitted everything He paid back to investors about million of the million invested according to a comment distributed by the U S Attorney s Office for the Eastern District of California Related Articles Coinbase says bribed workers leaked facts to hacker seeking million in ransom San Jose chiropractor pleads guilty to underreporting million in income for taxes California delivery driver pleads guilty to defrauding DoorDash of million in fake orders Peninsula man accused of scamming from Bay Area senior Bay Area progress agent sentenced to years for defrauding South Asians When agents tried to arrest him in November Piercey led them on a car chase before dumping his car and fleeing into frigid Lake Shasta with what was later identified as a Yamaha LI underwater submersible device Piercey spent a few time out of sight underwater where law enforcement could only see bubbles federal prosecutors wrote in court documents calling him a flight exposure He emerged from the lake after about minutes and was arrested The underwater device was a sea scooter or a motorized device that pulls users underwater at speeds of about mph kph Piercey tried to dissuade investors and spectators from responding to grand jury subpoenas and after his arrest used coded communications from jail to direct two individuals to dispose of a U-Haul storage locker he had rented according to the Justice Department declaration An FBI search of the locker turned up a wig and Swiss francs or roughly Piercey faces a maximum penalty of years in prison for each wire fraud mail fraud witness tampering and money laundering count His sentencing is scheduled for Sept