California man who used underwater scooter in lake to try to evade arrest pleads guilty to fraud

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — 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 $35 million investment fraud scheme, federal prosecutors announced.

Prosecutors say that between 2015 and 2020, Matthew Piercey, 48, of Shasta County solicited investor funds and used the money for various personal and business expenses, including the purchase of two residential properties.

He paid back to investors about $8.8. million of the $35 million invested, according to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California.

When agents tried to arrest him in November 2020, Piercey led them on a car chase before dumping his vehicle and fleeing into frigid Lake Shasta with what was later identified as a Yamaha 350LI underwater submersible device.

“Piercey spent some time out of sight underwater where law enforcement could only see bubbles,” federal prosecutors wrote in court documents calling him a flight risk.

He emerged from the lake after about 20 minutes and was arrested. The underwater device was a sea scooter, or a motorized device that pulls users underwater at speeds of about 4 mph (6.4 kph).

Piercey tried to dissuade investors and witnesses 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 statement.

An FBI search of the locker turned up a wig and 31,000 Swiss francs, or roughly $37,000.

Piercey faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each wire fraud, mail fraud, witness tampering and money laundering count. His sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 4.