https://www.wsaw.com/2025/06/17/wausau-investment-advisor-charged-with-wire-fraud-money-laundering/

A Wausau investment advisor has been charged in federal court for money laundering and wire fraud.

Stanley Pophal, 63, was arrested on Saturday. He made an initial court appearance Monday.

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 received more than $15,000,000 from at least 120 investors.

The criminal complaint also states that Pophal did not actually invest the majority of the money he obtained from his investors. Instead, he 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.