Federal prosecutors in Utah charged Christopher J. Ashby, Jordan S. Nelson, and Scott W. Beynon with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud arising from their operation of Noah's Event Centers, a nationwide event-venue chain they used to solicit investments from the public [1]. The government alleged the three men ran a Ponzi-style scheme that raised more than $30 million from investors through false promises of long-term financial returns [1]. Three additional co-defendants resolved their exposure before trial by entering guilty pleas [1].
After a five-week trial in the District of Utah, a federal jury returned guilty verdicts against all three defendants on all 18 counts each faced: 17 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud [1]. The unanimous verdicts, returned May 18, 2026, leave no counts unresolved as to the trial defendants [1]. The government's case centered on representations that investors would receive sustained financial returns from the event-venue business, representations prosecutors argued were knowingly false at the time they were made [1].
No sentencing date has been reported for Ashby, Nelson, or Beynon [1]. Federal wire fraud carries a statutory maximum of 20 years per count, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud carries the same maximum, meaning each defendant faces theoretical exposure in the hundreds of years before any guidelines calculation or judicial discretion is applied. The court has not announced a schedule for post-trial motions or sentencing proceedings.