JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Jacksonville real estate broker who is accused of orchestrating a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of nearly $6 million now faces federal charges of wire fraud, related to loans from the COVID-19 era Paycheck Protection Program.
Thursday, federal prosecutors revealed a grand jury indictment against Cedric Dewayne Griffin for three counts of wire fraud and one count of illegal monetary transactions.
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According to the indictment, in 2020 and 2021, Griffin applied for two loans through the Paycheck Protection Program, which was put in place to help businesses during COVID.
Prosecutors say that Griffin stated in his loan applications that one of his companies, Residential Alabama LLC, had dozens of employees and an average monthly payroll of tens of thousands of dollars.
His first loan application resulted in a loan for $216,287 to cover payroll, lease/mortgage interest, and utilities for his business, while the second application resulted in a $186,632 loan for payroll.
Griffin also applied for loan forgiveness for the first loan under PPP, which he received.
But according to the indictment, Griffin’s company had no employees, and no payroll expenses, and the loan proceeds were used for personal use.
Griffin’s two loan applications and his loan forgiveness application resulted in three wire fraud charges.
Prosecutors also charged him with an illegal monetary transaction for transferring $20,000 from Residential Alabama LLC’s bank account to the account of another one of his companies, G8 Equity, LLC.
Griffin has been on the radar of law enforcement in the area since at least 2022, when the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office posted a photo of him, asking if anyone knew where he was, because he was wanted for multiple counts of grand theft. He was arrested a few weeks later.
Then, in May 2023, JSO said it was looking for Griffin again, on an active warrant for organized fraud. That came just one day after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a federal civil lawsuit against Griffin, accusing him of running a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme, primarily targeting Jacksonville residents.
That lawsuit alleged that Griffin got 103 people to invest at least $5.8 million into his businesses, G8 Equity and G8 RE Capital, from January 2020 to December 2021, promising high returns from his work flipping houses. But, the lawsuit said, the money was actually used to pay other investors and himself.
That same week, Griffin didn’t show for a court hearing in his 2022 fraud case. Griffin remained on the run for nearly two years, with local authorities searching for him on their warrant, and federal authorities trying to serve him with the SEC civil complaint.
Griffin was eventually arrested in January 2025. Following his arrest on the organized fraud charges, the affidavit for his arrest warrant revealed that those charges were tied to the investment scheme, with investigators interviewing dozens of victims, including members of the local real estate community, as well as politicians and athletes.
According to documents, one investor alone handed over $1 million to Griffin.
Griffin currently remains in the Duval County Jail. His 2022 theft case is set to go to trial next month. A trial date has not yet been set for his state organized fraud charges.