Victim of Ponzi scheme recalls her suspicions

BARTONVILLE — News of the capture of an Illinois couple years after they went on the lam for running a Ponzi scheme brought back suspicions that Marcia Markwalder had about the pair the last time she and her husband invested — and lost — about $35,000.

Markwalder is the former mayor of Bartonville in central Illinois. She says she remembers how Nelson Hallahan’s hands shook and how he couldn’t look her in the eye, and she recalls warning her husband that they were going to be sorry.

Now, Nelson and Janet Hallahan sit in jail in Arizona after being captured 12 years after they pleaded guilty to federal charges in a $1.2 million scheme.

Markwalder says she still feels sorry for Janet Hallahan’s parents. She says they invested and lost everything.