Defrauded Investor Asks the Federal Court to Deny Ken Mattson Bail

The following is a letter submitted to the court on behalf of a defrauded investor in anticipation of the bail hearing for Ken Mattson on Wednesday May 28, 2025. It is just one of many such letters submitted to the court in advance of the hearing.

Your Honor,

I respectfully ask this Court to deny bail and order the pretrial detention of Ken Mattson.

Mr. Mattson operated a Ponzi scheme that devastated hundreds of victims, including me and my late husband, Calvin Gitsham, of the Gitsham Family Trust. We invested not for profit, but for peace of mind and long-term care. That trust has now been shattered. Mr. Mattson’s ongoing conduct, the severity of the charges, and the massive financial harm he caused make clear that pretrial release would pose an unacceptable risk to the public and to the integrity of this investigation.

1. Flight Risk

Mr. Mattson is a high flight risk:

• He has been caught carrying thousands of dollars in cash, a clear sign of preparation to flee.
• He travels with sensitive financial flash drives in his car, making it easy to hide or transfer funds instantly.
• His Ponzi scheme involved millions in investor money. With vast sums of unaccounted-for assets, he has both the means and motive to disappear.
• The collapse of his fraudulent empire and the severity of the charges create powerful incentives to escape accountability.

2. Danger to the Community

The scope of harm caused by Mr. Mattson’s actions cannot be overstated:

• His scheme targeted retirees, widows, and the elderly, robbing them of their life savings.
• I am an 85-year-old woman suffering from scleroderma, a debilitating autoimmune disease. Mr. Mattson knew I was physically disabled and unable to work, yet still stopped our investment payments just one month after my husband died.
• His actions left me not only grieving the loss of my husband, Calvin, but terrified of losing my home and independence.
• His conduct constitutes an ongoing danger—not just financial, but emotional and existential for elderly, disabled victims like me.

3. Severity of Charges

Mr. Mattson faces federal charges likely including wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering—each of which carries potential sentences measured in decades. These charges:

• Reflect the scale, complexity, and malicious intent behind his scheme.
• Increase his incentive to flee as conviction becomes more likely.
• Involve millions of dollars and potentially transnational components, further justifying pretrial detention.

4. Risk of Obstruction

Mr. Mattson has already attempted to obstruct justice:

• Video evidence shows someone taking bags of documents to the trash the day before authorities raided his home—a clear effort to destroy financial records.
• He has used others—including close family members—to shield assets and obstruct investigators.
• His wife, Staci Mattson, is a 50% owner of KSMP, a company under scrutiny. She is now scheduled for an oral deposition. Their ongoing access to each other presents a direct risk of continued obstruction and witness tampering.

5. Pattern of Deceit and Manipulation

This is not a case of a one-time lapse in judgment. Mr. Mattson:

• Lied repeatedly to trusting investors—including my late husband and me. He’d sit at our dining room table and lie to us while looking us directly in our eyes.
• Took money from the vulnerable—including myself—while posing as a trusted family friend.
• Accepted our invitation to serve as a pallbearer at my husband’s funeral, then cut off our income just one month later, knowing full well that I was alone, disabled, and dependent on that money to survive.

Your Honor, I cannot overstate the emotional, physical, and financial toll this man has inflicted on me and so many others. I ask the Court not only to consider the law, which provides ample justification for pretrial detention in cases of financial fraud of this scale, but to also consider the lived experience of his victims—people like me, who now live in fear and heartbreak because of his actions.

Ken Mattson will not stop. His greed and deception know no bounds. He cannot be trusted, and I beg you not to release him. Doing so would put me and all who are in my position at a greater risk of losing what little we have left.

Respectfully,
Grace Gitsham
Widow of Calvin Gitsham, Gitsham Family Trust