State and Tangipahoa Parish authorities have arrested a Ponchatoula man for creating a Ponzi scheme that they say cost at least 200 investors over $11 million dollars.

District Attorney Scott Perrilloux said William J. Chaucer Junior was arrested Thursday on 20 counts each of felony theft,
unregistered dealer in the sale of securities, sales of unregistered securities and making material misrepresentations in the sale of a security. Chaucer is the principal of Chaucer Holding Company and several other companies in Hammond, Covington and Ponchatoula.

Perrilloux said Chaucer allegedly told individual investors that their money would be invested to fund one of his loan companies, but the vast majority of their money was used to finance the extravagant lifestyle of William and Cheryl Chaucer.