A Winner’s Attitude
Jason Bullard wanted to be a winner. He grew up admiring horses and playing sports, always
wanting to be the best at whatever he touched. However, Jason was a huge loser. Unfortunately,
for over 200 investors, that led him and his wife, Angela, to running an $18 Million Ponzi scheme.
They stole from friends and family for over 14 years, promising significant returns on their
investments. Instead, they used the money to fuel their own dream of becoming the most famous horse
owners in the country. With 23 purebreds to their name, the Bullards were well on their
way to achieving that dream, becoming the most renowned horse owners in Minnesota. But with a
scheme like theirs, it was only a matter of time before it all came crashing down.
Meet The Bullards
Who are the Bullards, and how did they get so many people to trust them with their
livelihoods? The answer is a combination of their success and deceptive nature. Both of them had
fond memories of going to the races with friends and family. Jason was an athlete growing up,
and this gave him a competitive edge that he took to business and eventually crime. Before
he and his wife participated in their first race, they were business owners. Angela owned
a fitness center while Jason was a licensed securities broker between 2000 and 2004. He
had legitimate experience with finances and made use of this knowledge later on during his schemes.
Together they owned a limo and party-bus service catering to the Twin-Cities area.
Jason bought his first horse in 2015 and used his business sense
to figure out the game of horse racing. The future con artist rose to prominence,
and as his horses kept winning. Hee was well known at the famous Canterbury Park race track. In 2019,
his stable tied for the top owner spot by scoring 56 first-place finishes and earning
almost $1 Million in prize money. How good was his stable? How many prize horses did he own?
Empire Racing Stables
Before the Bullards could become the top names in the Shakopee racing community,
they had to build a stable. The stable's name was taken from Jason's own words when he said,
"I want to build an empire." So, Empire Racing Stables was born,
and the Bullards were ready to set off on their new adventure. As of 2019, their success
enabled them to own 24 horses with 19 racing at Canterbury Park. Their team of horses became some
of the most frequent winners throughout Empire Racing Stable's career. Maybe it was Jason's clear
determination to become the best at Canterbury Park that drove him to run his Ponzi Scheme.
Looking back to his athletic teenage years, it was evident that Jason had a competitive
nature. When he did something, he didn't just want to participate;
Jason wanted to be the best. This drive carried over into every aspect of his life,
and horse racing was no exception. When considering his new career in stable running,
his first thought was how he could win and be the best at it.
Jason figured the more horses he owned, the better his odds of winning were—you
know—cast a wide net. Empire Racing Stables also offered a unique program where they
allowed people to invest in a racehorse. The part-owner program made investors feel like
they owned their own horse without dealing with the complex maintenance parts. However,
it was just more fuel for the Bullard's scam.
Canterbury Park
It was Jason's dream to become the biggest name in horse racing at Canterbury Park. What exactly
is Canterbury Park, and why does he want to dominate there so badly? This well-known
horse racing track has been around since the early '80s. They went by many different names
as they switched owners over the years. One thing the owners all had in common was the
idea to bring horse racing back to Minnesota. In 1994 they delivered on that promise. In 1996,
they changed the name for the final time, and the legendary Canterbury Park was born.
The track focused on horse races but always wanted to venture out into other gambling
avenues, and in 1999, they got their chance. Legislation passed,
allowing them to open a card room, making them a convenient destination for Minnesota gamblers.
The track hosts the Fall Poker Classic, a two-week poker tournament that's been
held at Canterbury every year since 2001. They even hosted the Twin Cities Summer Jam music
festival in 2019. Between its prestigious horse races and the poker tournament,
it's easy to see why Bullard wanted to be somebody to know at Canterbury Park.
The Scam
While horse racing was a huge part of their life, it had to take a backseat to their other project,
a massive Ponzi Scheme. They gathered around $18 million over the years from friends and family.
They used the promise of significant returns to convince investors to fork over their money.
Jason Bullard used his previously gained knowledge in finance to trick investors into
believing he had their best interest at heart. Hee promised to invest their money in forex trades,
offering returns of 10-12%. Forex trading is like the stock market for foreign currency.
When the prices of the world's currencies fluctuate, you stand to make a profit.
While Jason was licensed, he never completed his registry with the National Futures Association.
The NFA is an organization all traders have to register with. Its purpose is to protect
investors and make sure its members meet their responsibilities. Jason was showing false reports
to his investors to ease their nerves, making it seem like their investments were performing well.
Jason received investor money and deposited it into the Bullard Enterpirses' TD Ameritrade
account. According to the SEC, Jason lost almost $300,000 in 2018 and $700,000
in 2019. He bounced back in 2020 with a measly $1,000 gain. By January 31st,
Bullard Enterprises had $275 in their brokerage account. However,
Bullard provided investors with fake documents that showed significant gains.
In reality, those accounts acted as the Bullard's personal ATMs until they ran dry. They took the
money and used it to fund Empire Racing Stables and prop up their other businesses. They collected
money from over two hundred investors, most of whom were family and friends.
Many were older people who tapped into their retirement accounts to invest with the Bullards.
A Way Out?
The SEC alleged in their report on the Bullards that their Ponzi Scheme had been
in full swing since 2007. However, they didn't start their racing career until much later. They
didn't buy a horse until 2015 and didn't become big at Canterbury park until 2019.
Before this, they were funding all of their business ventures and their entire
lifestyle off of the Ponzi Scheme. Years and years of this had put them in a hole,
and they needed a way out. Was Jason swingingly blindly,
hoping to get lucky on some multi-million dollar investment, or did he have a plan?
Jason saw horse racing as their way out, and if that is indeed the case, 2019 was the year he
planned on doing it. Before 2019, Empire Racing Stables only brought in around $100,000 a year,
but in 2019 they almost cleared a million. They competed more and more often as if they
were trying to get all of the money they could before the Ponzi scheme came crashing down.
They might have been trying to earn enough to dig themselves out of the hole they were in,
or maybe they were going to fly away with as much cash as possible? In the end,
only the Bullards know the answer to that question.
Expensive Horses
If the plan to get out of their Ponzi Scheme was to buy horses,
then it was a risky plan, to say the least. The cost of purchasing horses and running a
stable can be astronomical in itself. The base price of a thoroughbred racehorse is $100,000,
but this price can skyrocket to well beyond $300,000 due to the competitive nature of
the purchase. But, owning the horse is only the tip of your expenses. You
must also pay for upkeep for the animal, which can run around $45,000 annually.
One horse could leave you half a million dollars in the hole. Now imagine having
23 of them on top of a horse racing company to care for. If you add up all the basic costs of
these animals, the Bullards spent $4.5 million, and that's on the low end. That's not including
paying recovery fees of injured animals or taking care of a jockey's salary.
There are so many fees involved in starting and maintaining this business
that the Bullards hole got much deeper before it ever had a chance to shrink.
Did Not Finish
It seemed as though the plan would work, and they'd finally be able to get out of their scheme.
They'd built a prominent life for themselves as racehorse owners and Ponzi schemers, knowing it
could all be gone in a flash if that weight hanging over them ever fell—and fall it did.
Everything went downhill for the couple. People began asking for their money back quicker than
the crooks expected. They tried to find new backers and pay off their old investors.
They had defrauded over 200 people, and all of them were about to become aware of the scam.
When the SEC opened up the case against the Bullards, they asked for all of their
assets to be frozen and transferred to a court-appointed receiver. The SEC also had
Jason's brokerage license suspended. The horses were allowed to compete in races,
but the winnings went to the receiver while they were being investigated. At this point,
it was evident that the two swindlers had been caught in a trap of their own making,
with no way out. All that was left was to go to trial and find out the truth behind their lies.
Furthermore, Jason admitted he hadn't participated in Forex trading since 2015, the
year his horseracing dreams came to light. To make matters worse, he reportedly lost over $700,000
in bad trades in 2019, the year he pulled in almost $1 Million in horse race winnings.
Bullard may have been a licensed broker, but that didn't make him a good one.
PPP Fraud
During the investigation, many other things about the Bullards Ponzi Scheme came out. One
of the more noticeable was them abusing the relief given to businesses to help during Covid. The PPP,
or paycheck protection program offered by the U.S. Small Business Association,
was to help small companies keep employees. When word of this made it to the Bullards,
they saw it like everything else in their life, a resource to exploit.
They got $434,000 in assistance cash and used it all to keep their Ponzi Scheme
from sinking. The SEC claims the Bullards used the bulk of the proceeds they received
from the Paycheck Protection Program to either fund investor payments until
new investor money was received or to fund their horse racing efforts. The Bullards were
scrambling at that point, desperate to save their sinking ship, but there was no way out.
A Long Race Ahead
Jason and Angela's long winding road is finally coming to an end. They were officially charged
at the beginning of September 2021. Their Ponzi scheme fell apart, pulling them from
their millionaire thrones and back down to earth. All of the Bullards' friends and family now know
what they did to them, so there is no escaping it. The Bullards are unlikely to race another horse
ever again, as the evidence presented at their trial will probably bury them.
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