The Rise and Fall of a Ponzi Schemer

Even though the particulars of the investments guaranteeing up to 30 percent returns seemed a bit mysterious to Harbour’s educated, accomplished targets, that was part of the scam. “Ponzi perpetrators are experts at talking in a vocabulary that most people can’t understand,” Springer says. “Victims are starstruck and assume, ‘I have to trust them because they know so much more than I do.’ ” 

And he was so wealthy himself, it seemed.

Victims at Harbour’s trial testified they were swayed by the trappings of his apparent success — his expensive watches, luxury golf memberships in Cabo San Lucas, Palm Springs and Scottsdale, the $800,000 boats that he kept at his property inside the Gozzer Ranch Golf & Lake Club, a tony private club overlooking Idaho’s Lake Coeur d’Alene. Harbour wined and dined those he targeted. He flew some prospective investors to exotic locations on private jets and shared his multiple vacation properties, according to court records. On his 40th birthday, for example, Harbour flew a group of clients first to Mexico for a private party, then on to Hollywood for a private concert featuring the rock band the Eagles. But over those 14 years, Harbour was often broke, scrambling to find new investors who could pony up to pay his overdue credit card bills and allow him to keep the illusion intact and the Ponzi wheel spinning.

Brandon Lopez, IRS-CI Supervisory Special Agent with the IRS Criminal Investigation’s Phoenix Field Office who worked on the Harbour case, confirms that this juggling act is a classic Ponzi scheme tactic. “All along, they are scrambling for their next victim, constantly thinking, How do I keep this thing afloat as long as possible?” The answer was that his earlier clients, still “under the ether,” as law enforcement members call the suspension of disbelief, were his best asset, recruiting their friends and family members into the scheme.

Other victims

One victim, Ken Bobrow, 86, lost more than $2 million through multiple investments with Harbour over more than a decade — money he thought was funding business ventures.

When Bobrow wanted the money back, Harbour told him it had gone to a man named Pat Spaulding and forged email messages from Spaulding to Bobrow in response to Bobrow’s questions. But Spaulding, who was not involved in the scam, had died a few years earlier, federal agents say.

Prosecutors say Harbour also defrauded Rhonda Gray out of nearly all her money. When Gray’s husband, who had Huntington’s disease, died by suicide in 2009, she was left with bills she couldn’t afford.

Harbour promised her he would deal directly with banks and bill collectors if she paid him $10,000 a month. When she later received payment for a $1 million life insurance policy taken out by her husband, Harbour persuaded her to invest it with him.

In court, Gray said she considered Harbour her “knight in shining armor” and believed their relationship was becoming romantic. Harbour took Gray to dinners, preying on her vulnerability. “I thought he was wonderful because he was helping take so much pressure off of me,” she testified.

Grayd didn’t receive the money promised from her investment. When her father needed surgery, she couldn’t help him. Harbour strung her along for more than five years.

Harbour even stole money from his assistant, Carol Hill, who withdrew her $81,000 retirement fund and $500,000 her husband had inherited for Harbour to invest. 

The scammer gets caught

Most Ponzi schemes eventually fall apart. 

The beginning of the end for Harbour came in 2016, when he caught the eye of the Phoenix office of the FBI, who were initially investigating Joel Tucker, a Harbour associate later sentenced to 12 years in prison for tax evasion and running a phony debt-selling scam.

An FBI forensic accountant tracked down 50 bank accounts tied to Harbour and his associates,, and began looking for mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. The accountant tracked receipts and noted extravagant purchases, including a $104,000 6-carat platinum ring, a $53,000 Rolex watch, and an $18,000 diamond cuff bracelet.

When Missouri IRS agent Lionel Green traveled to Scottsdale to interview him as part of a tax audit, Harbour tried to charm the agent, who is a baseball fan. He told Green he could arrange a visit to the players’ dugout during an Arizona Diamondbacks game or golf with baseball Hall of Famer George Brett, according to Green’s court testimony.

“Mr. Harbour was one of the most sophisticated individuals I’ve come across, and he had the gift of gab,” says IRS agent Lopez.

Harbour’s day of reckoning came in federal court in March 2023, when a jury found him guilty of felony wire fraud and money laundering. He later pleaded guilty to evading more than $4 million in taxes. The following January, he was sentenced to eight years in prison. His attorneys, who did not return calls for comment, have filed an appeal.

Harbour’s victims struggle to understand what makes a person like him tick. But he may not know himself, Springer says.

“Some [scammers] convince themselves that what they’re doing is OK. They lie to themselves,” she says. “Some of them know very well that what they are doing is wrong, and they do it anyway, because they can.”