A Wausau man faces charges in a massive fraud case involving more than $15-million in assets from over 120 investors.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Western Wisconsin says 63-year-old Stanley Pophal is accused of wire fraud and money laundering.
He made an initial appearance in federal court this week.
According to the criminal complaint, beginning in 2019, Pophal solicited investors to purchase promissory notes from him with supposedly guaranteed rates of return.
In order to lure investors into the scheme, Pophal falsely represented that he was a wealthy businessman.
Between May of 2019 and March of 2025, Pophal allegedly received more than $15,000,000 from at least 120 investors.
The criminal complaint also alleges that Pophal did not actually invest the majority of the money he obtained from his investors.
Instead, Pophal used the money to live an extravagant lifestyle, including the purchase of over 300 snowmobiles.
To keep the fraud scheme going, Pophal also used new investor money to make “lulling payments” to previous investors to make it appear as though those investors were earning investment returns.
The charges against Pophal are a result of an investigation conducted by IRS Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
