A former husband and wife who led Hawaii-based Semisub Inc. were sentenced Wednesday for orchestrating a decade-long scheme that defrauded hundreds of investors out of millions of dollars.
Curtiss E. Jackson, 72, of Honolulu, and Jamey Denise Jackson, 62, of Colchester, Conn., and formerly of Honolulu, served as Semisub’s CEO and president, respectively. The pair misled investors by falsely claiming that the company’s prototype vessel, Semisub One, was close to beginning operations and that Semisub had secured lucrative agreements with government agencies and a private investment firm.
Work to build the unique, 149-passenger vessel began in Long Beach, Calif., in 2008 and continued in Hawaii for 10 years. The 72' Semisub One entered service in 2019.
According to court documents and trial evidence, investor funds were used to finance the Jacksons' personal lifestyle, including luxury homes in Hawaii and California, a Mercedes-Benz automobile, vacations, psychics, and marijuana.
Curtiss Jackson was also found to have attempted to intimidate Jamey Denise Jackson during the investigation by sending a video link titled “Death of FBI Informants,” which included violent scenes from the television series The Sopranos. He later tried to flee U.S. territorial waters aboard Semisub One — the vessel central to the scheme and subject to forfeiture — the day before a bond revocation hearing.
Curtiss Jackson was convicted in May 2024 on multiple counts, including securities fraud, conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, witness tampering, and obstruction of an official proceeding. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Jamey Denise Jackson pleaded guilty in January 2023 to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and was sentenced to two years in prison.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and IRS Criminal Investigation. Prosecution was led by the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Hawaii.
