A New York District Judge ruled to sentence a former broker to nine years in prison on Wednesday. The man was found guilty of helping run a Ponzi scheme that was able to defraud 3,800 investors out of over $150 million.
Reported by Reuters, District Judge Denis Hurley sentenced Jason Keryc on Wednesday after he was found guilty of the charges filed against him. Keryc, a 38-year-old former broker from Agape World Inc., was sentenced to spend nine years in prison as well as pay a restitution amounting to $179 million.
US Attorney Robert Capers spoke to newspapers when the Judge gave his sentencing. According to the Attorney, the sentence ensures that Keryc "will now pay the price for his self-enrichment and deceit."
When LIBN caught up with Keryc's lawyer, John Carman, he said that his client was "grateful to the court" since it had fashioned a sentencing he believed was "meaningful and fair."
The court's decision on Keryc's case came after a federal jury found he was guilty in April. Along with Diane Kaylor, another former employee of the investment firm, the jury found them both guilty on charges that included wire fraud, mail fraud, conspiracy, and securities fraud.
The prosecutors went on to say that both Kaylor and Keryc played a vital role in defrauding their Agape investors in what resembled a classic Ponzi scheme.
Agape World Inc. was founded by Nicholas Cosmo in 2000 after serving 21 months of prison time after he was found guilty for defrauding his investors.
Reuters reports that the company managed to defraud investors from October 2005 to January 2009, where it had managed to draw in over $370 million after it had given spiels of unrealistic promises on returns on investors' money. True to its Ponzi-like fashion, some of the money was indeed returned to investors. However, the money returned to them were not gained from profits earned on investments but on the money paid by new investors, as well as from existing deposits made by other investors.
In 2011, Cosmo pleaded guilty for the scheme and was sentenced to spend 25 years in prison. Other than Cosmo, Keryc and Kaylor, six other people have also been convicted, as shared by News Day.
Prosecutors claimed that Keryc spent some of the $8.9 million he earned from the scheme on a million-dollar vacation home in Montauk, a Long Beach condominium, jewelry, designer clothing, and automobiles.
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