Yet another all to common case of business-turns-to ponzi-scheme. Nice guy gone bad; more than 200 former customers who together lost millions when the company went bankrupt in 2003
DesMoinesRegister.com: "Once the broker of millions of dollars worth of real estate in Iowa and Nebraska, Wolford Sr. faces up to 165 years in prison after being found guilty of every count of felony fraud and theft filed against him � a total of 17. The former owner of the Wolford Group Inc. will be sentenced April 21 in Polk County District Court.

His son, Rod Wolford II, also faces possible prison time for his part in misleading scores of home buyers, sellers and investors as the now-defunct, family-owned business struggled from 2000 to 2003.

Wolford and his son once bought and sold hundreds of houses using high-risk land contracts that did not carry the same protections as traditional mortgages. Often, they sought to buy properties at low prices from people in distressed situations, and then sell them at much higher prices and interest rates to people with poor credit.

As the Wolfords' business floundered, witnesseses in the trial said, they began to "rob Peter to pay Paul," stealing mortgage settlement money to cover their payroll and growing debt. In the end, more than 200 people lost thousands of dollars, had their credit ruined, were sued by banks or kicked out of their homes.

"It's amazing to me that this could even happen with a buyer's money," said Polk County prosecutor George Karnas, who handled the case with two attorneys from the Iowa attorney general's office. "The Legislature needs to figure this out to make sure that the money gets to the right people."

With Wolford Sr.'s criminal trial over, the attorney general's office is now free to proceed with a consumer fraud lawsuit it brought against the Wolfords in the summer of 2003. Bob Brammer, a spokesman for the office, said attorneys will evaluate how best to move forward, given that the two men could wind up behind bars and that their company is bankrupt.