Semisub One was billed as “one of the world’s most luxurious high-tech watercraft.” It was promised to be the first of a fleet of sleek, semi-submersible vessels with air-conditioned cabins and panoramic underwater views. 

 Semisub’s CEO, Curtiss Jackson, and its President, Jamey Denise Jackson, told investors for years that the prototype vessel was “weeks” or “months” away from beginning operations. For more than a decade, the married couple name-dropped major cruise line contracts, cited Coast Guard approvals, and claimed that sea trials were already underway. The brochures looked polished. The website was confident. Together, the couple raised $29 million dollars from investors.

The problem, according to federal prosecutors, was that none of it was true. There were no shipyards, no subs under construction, no contracts in motion.

Court records show the couple used investor money for personal travel, inflated salaries, and day-to-day expenses. They created fake invoices and invented correspondence to back their story. At one point, they even pointed to fabricated letters of intent from cruise companies as justification for raising more cash.

Last week, Curtiss Jackson, 72, was sentenced to thirteen years in prison for securities fraud, conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, witness tampering, and obstructing an official proceeding. Jamey Jackson, 62, was sentenced to two years in prison for conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud.