A South Florida woman known as “Mother Theresa” in her community has been accused of running her business as a lucrative Ponzi scheme that scammed close to $200 million.
Johanna M. Garcia, of North Lauderdale, allegedly defrauded over 15,400 investors of up to $196 million through her company, MJ Capital Funding LLC, NPR reported Tuesday.
Founded in 2020, MJ Capital pledged to connect investors with small businesses through “merchant cash advance,” or MCA.
Described as a “hardworking woman that has her priorities in line” in her company bio, Garcia boasted of being a down-to-earth businesswoman who helped regular people generate wealth — she was even “referred to as ‘Mother Theresa’ [sic] in her community.”
The ruse started to fall apart in April 2021, when a website emerged accusing MJ Capital of running a Ponzi scheme.
Garcia sued the anonymous whistleblower for defamation and continued to collect money from investors through August 2021, when the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a formal complaint against the company.
In the document dated Aug. 9, the SEC alleges that MJ Capital used investors’ cash to fund “outside annualized ‘returns’ of 120%-180%,” while company higher-ups squirreled away investments for personal excursions and luxury goods.
In addition to using new injections of money to…
