On Saturday in a small town west of Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. marshals captured an Illinois couple convicted a dozen years earlier on charges of bank and mail fraud conspiracy and money laundering in connection with a Ponzi scheme. Grant and Janet Hallahan, known to U.S. marshals as the “Mini Madoffs,” ripped off over $1.2 million from family, friends, and elderly victims with promises of high returns on bogus investments, including a tanning salon they later sold without telling anyone. Officials caught the Hallahans thanks to a tip received only one day after the couple was featured on America’s Most Wanted. Prisoners would be wise to avoid Grant and Janet Hallahan’s cigarette trading club.
