SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — A man sentenced to nine years in prison for bilking South Dakota investors out of nearly $700,000 in 2019 is getting out of prison thanks to President Joe Biden.
Tobias Ritesman, the man behind the Global Aquaponics scheme near Brookings, received presidential clemency.
The official document from the White House is dated December 12 and titled Clemency Recipient List. It says “Today, President Joseph R. Biden is granting clemency consisting of 39 pardons and 1,499 commutations.” Scroll down to the R’s and you will find Ritesman’s name.
Our KELOLAND News Investigation exposed his scheme back in 2017. Ritesman bilked investors out of hundreds of thousand of dollars for a proposed fish and vegetable farm south of Brookings.
Federal investigators found Ritesman collected money from investors and then used it for his own purposes. He even temporarily secured the land and held a groundbreaking for the operation in June of 2016. At one point he told KELOLAND he had raised $2 million from investors.
The following is from an interview that former KELOLAND investigative reporter Angela Kennecke. Kennecke: Have you gotten all those investors? Have you gotten $2 million? Ritesman: “Oh yeah. We wanted to get as many local people involved in some of our projects and stuff like that.” Kennecke: “Have you raised more than $2 million?”Ritesman: “No.”
Ritesman claimed to have an MBA from UCLA and having done consulting for major corporations. He also claimed he was working with South Dakota State University on the project. It was all a lie. The former head of the so-called “Aquaponics” company was eventually convicted on 18 felony charges in federal court.
The White House document doesn’t say why Ritesman’s sentence is being commuted. What we do know is Ritesman is specifically getting a commutation, not a pardon. That’s a suspension of his sentence, which is essentially a get-out-of-jail card. But commutations don’t wipe away the crimes he was found guilty of. Ritesman is still a convicted felon.
