Naman Shrestha
In ABC’s ’20/20: Small Town, Big Con’ and NBC’s ‘Dateline: The Devil’s in the Detail,’ the primary focus is on Natalie Cochran and how her Ponzi scheme turned out to be full of losses for the investors and deadly for her husband, Michael Cochran. Upon investigation, the authorities found a series of evidence against Natalie, who scammed various people in her own community of rural West Virginia in order to lead a lavish life. Both episodes chronicle the Ponzi scheme in detail through exclusive and in-depth interviews with Natalie’s victims and Michael’s loved ones.
Natalie Cochran Ran a Ponzi Scheme by Pretending to be a Government Contractor
Leading up to 2017, the year that brought significant changes to the lives of Michael and Natalie Cochran, the married couple led a social and active life in Daniels, West Virginia, along with their two children, Nicole and Ashton. While Michael was employed in the IT sector and coached baseball and football, Natalie was a pharmacist. However, after opening two new companies — Tactical Solutions Group (TSG) and Technology Management Solutions (TMS) — she left her pharmacy job and focused on the family business. The only issue was that they were not real businesses; she used them to run a Ponzi Scheme.
As the majority owner of the companies, Natalie reached out to family and friends, including Michael’s parents and their neighbors, who ended up investing thousands of dollars, hoping to gain generous profits in return. Posing as a legitimate government contractor, she managed to defraud at least 11 people to invest approximately $2.5 million, which was paid via cashier’s checks, personal checks, and wire transfers. In order to pay off early investors and keep her Ponzi Scheme afloat, she also convinced multiple finance companies by making them believe in her business. She also filed a bankruptcy petition to keep her fraudulent scheme concealed from the public.
Instead of investing the money she received from the investors in her companies, she reportedly used the funds to fulfill her personal extravagant demands. According to reports, she spent over $37,500 to buy herself a 1965 Shelby Cobra, among other cars and motorcycles. Apart from that, the Cochrans also purchased three houses and went on international trips to Paris and Hawaii. Due to the noticeable shift in their lifestyle, it appeared that their family business was thriving, attracting more funds from other investors. After running the Ponzi scheme for more than two years, from June 2017 to at least August 2019, Natalie was exposed as doubts clouded the investors’ minds.
Natalie Poisoned Her Husband to Keep Her Scheme Running
On the morning of February 6, 2019, Natalie and Michael Cochran had plans to fly to Virginia to have a business meeting with Bank of America representatives. Since the former was aware that their business was far from legitimate, she could not risk her husband learning the truth and jeopardizing her scheme. Thus, she reportedly injected him with insulin and informed his family and friends that she found him unconscious in the kitchen. After constant insistence from his friends, she agreed to admit Michael to a nearby hospital. Despite receiving medical treatment for five days, he passed away at the Hospice House of Southern West Virginia in Beckley on February 11.
Soon after her husband’s death, she launched a scholarship in his memory called the “Coach Michael Cochran Legacy Scholarship.” The truth about the Ponzi scheme began to unravel when $15,000 worth of funds collected through a middle school baseball league went missing, with Natalie serving as the fundraiser’s treasurer. As suspicions grew among the members of the league committee, a private eye was hired to look into the matter. It was found out that in order to delay the returns she promised her investors, she had come up with all kinds of excuses, including her alleged cancer treatments and a federal government shutdown.
Natalie Was Brought to Justice For Defrauding People of Her Community
Meanwhile, just a few months after Michael’s death, she made a deal to sell almost half of Tactical Solutions Group for $4 million. However, before the deal could happen, on June 25, 2019, the police knocked on the Cochran residence with a search warrant for the property. When the authorities confirmed that the TSG and TMS were illegitimate businesses that only existed on paper, and Natalie had been running a Ponzi scheme, she was arrested and faced 26 charges related to the fraud, including providing false testimony on several occasions at the 341(a) meeting of creditors.
Although initially she pleaded not guilty to the charges, she eventually took a guilty plea on September 21, 2020, and admitted to an unlawful monetary transaction and wire fraud. At the same time, she also surrendered the assets she purchased through the Ponzi scheme, including vehicles, jewelry, two properties, and $45,000 seized from her business’ bank account. Finally, in March 2021, the former pharmacist was sentenced to a total of 11 years in federal prison for defrauding people of millions of dollars. In addition, she was also ordered to pay back $2.5 million to the investors she defrauded and serve three years of supervised release after the completion of her prison sentence.
Read More: Where Are Michael Cochran’s Parents Now? What Happened to Natalie Cochran’s Mom?
