Brian and Jeanine Tesch started with a $165,000 check. By the end, they say, they had sold their home and their land, and Stanley Pophal was after their 401(k). They only stopped when they saw his mug shot.
The couple, from Tomahawk, Wisconsin, thought of Pophal as family. “He was like a brother to me,” Brian Tesch told WSAW. Federal prosecutors say Pophal ran a Ponzi scheme that took $14.25 million from 190 investors, and a federal court has now sentenced him to eight years in prison, which is 96 months. U.S. District Judge William M. Conley imposed the sentence. Pophal, of Wausau, was also ordered to repay $14.25 million in restitution.
How the scheme worked
From May 2019 to June 2025, Pophal operated as Bright with Silver, Inc. He pitched investments in cryptocurrency, real estate, artificial intelligence and precious metals, and had people sign contracts styled as promissory notes that promised a return of at least 20%. He told them his own wealth made their principal safe. It did not. Many of his investors were 65 or older.
The money went elsewhere. Pophal paid for personal travel, his mortgage and rented private planes. He bought a yellow Ferrari and hundreds of snowmobiles, which sat in a rented warehouse. Early investors got paid out of what newer ones put in. Agents seized more than 600 items bought with investor funds, and Pophal agreed to forfeit them. Online auctions of the snowmobiles and vehicles, run through the Justice and Treasury departments, began on July 28 to help repay victims.
An Iowa tip-off
The case did not start in Wisconsin. In February 2025 the Allamakee County Sheriff’s Office in Iowa opened an investigation after a call from a concerned citizen, and the Iowa Insurance Division’s Fraud Bureau looked into unauthorized investment meetings held across several Iowa counties. In April 2025 Pophal and four co-defendants faced state charges for selling unregistered securities. When a federal complaint charging wire fraud and money laundering was unsealed, the Iowa charges against Pophal were dropped so the federal case could go ahead. IRS Criminal Investigation and the FBI carried out the federal investigation.
At the sentencing hearing, many victims described what the crimes had done to them. The judge stressed that life savings and retirement funds were gone and said no prison term could fully answer Pophal’s conduct.
“Pophal took the trust his investors placed in him and turned it into a payday for himself, using deceit to steal more than $14 million and live high on other people’s money,” said Robert J. Kuszynski, Acting Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation’s Chicago Field Office. “Our special agents used their forensic accounting expertise to pull apart his Ponzi scheme, dollar by dollar.”
What the victims got
So far, nothing for the Teschs. Pophal had promised their money would double in five years, they said, and sent several checks, among them one for $6,000 and one for $35,000. They had planned to retire in Florida. Now they split their time between a trailer in Tomahawk and a rental in Mexico, where living costs are lower, and they cannot afford to be in Wisconsin for the birth of a new grandchild.
“The life savings that we had, the hopes and the dreams for a bright future. And now we just struggle to find joy in living,” Jeanine Tesch said.
Sources
- ‘We couldn’t believe it’: Couple reeling after losing life savings in $14 million Ponzi scheme
- ‘We couldn’t believe it’: Couple reeling after losing life savings in $14 million Ponzi scheme
