The Mini Madoffs Arrested after 12 Years on the Run

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The con artist couple known as ‘Mini Madoffs’ and featured on the last episode on “America’s Most Wanted” were arrested following a tipoff to the police. U.S. Marshal for Arizona, David Gonzales, said that “The 12-year run from justice of the Hallahans, also known as the `Mini Madoffs,’ has come to an end … Their investment scams involving family, friends, and the elderly, ruined many lives.”

The couple, after being arrested earlier 12 years back, had pleaded guilty for bank and mail fraud conspiracy and money laundering in an Illinois federal court. Following the guilty plea, the couple Nelson Grant Hallahan and Janet Hallahan did not turn up in the court for their sentencing and went on the run.

On Saturday afternoon, the fugitives were arrested from Tonopah, a desert community 50 miles west of Phoenix. They are thought to have hidden in Arizona for the past couple of years.

  

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The Hallahans are charged with running a Ponzi scheme in which they ruined friends, elderly people and their family members. The couple used to promise their victims large returns on their investments and ran a Ponzi scheme by repaying earlier investors with money invested by new victims. They also sold interests in a tanning salon which they had sold without informing investors.

According to the law enforcement the couple had defrauded people of millions of dollars and had a lavish lifestyle with yachts, luxury vehicles, designer clothes and other amenities.

Teresa Allred, 63, a former friend of Janet Hallahan said that the Hallahans had taken $15,000 from her to buy tanning beds at their tanning salon. She said, “When she was borrowing money from us to buy tanning beds, she had already sold the tanning salon… with friends like that, who needs enemies?”

Nelson Hallahan was a successful life insurance salesman who married Janet, his assistant and secretary in 1988.