A California woman has been convicted of running a nearly $2 million Ponzi scheme built around a fake smart ring company.
A federal jury in Santa Ana found Michelle Bisnoff, 59, guilty of securities fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, identity theft and COVID-relief fraud, reports NBC Los Angeles.
Prosecutors say Bisnoff, a former Pacific Palisades and Santa Barbara resident, raised nearly $2 million for Esos Rings by claiming she owned patents on wearable rings that worked like debit cards and by falsely saying Apple and Roc Nation were backing Walmart and Target orders.
In reality, she sold only six rings to Walmart, with three returned, had no Target deal and never got Apple or Roc Nation support, while using new investor money to pay earlier backers.
Trial evidence showed she spent investor funds on personal rent of more than $15,000 a month and took a $150,000 COVID relief loan under an alias for personal use.
When returns failed to show, the Justice Department says she offered a string of excuses, tried to embezzle about $550,000 from an employer and then sent checks that bounced.
“When Bisnoff failed to provide the promised investment returns, she offered a series of bogus explanations described by one victim who testified at trial as ‘dog-ate-my-homework’ excuses.”
Investors lost about $1.4 million of the nearly $2 million she took in.
Bisnoff faces sentencing on January 21st of, 2027, and up to 20 years on the most serious counts.
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