Orlando, FL – A New Smyrna Beach man gets prison time for stealing millions of dollars from investors of a company he created along with a Clearwater woman.
58-year-old Brian Newton is sentenced to 15 years and 8 months in federal prison following a hearing on Thursday in front of United States District Judge Paul G. Byron.
Newton’s partner in Prestige Funding – 55-year-old Victoria Snow – got 4 years and 9 months in federal lockup and both have to pay back over $7.2 million to investors, according to the US Department of Justice.
Newton and Snow were convicted in July of defrauding over 60 people in a factoring scheme while working on behalf of Dataforce International.
“Factoring” is a financial transaction where a business sells invoices and other types of accounts receivables to a third party – known as a “factor” – at a discount. The factor advances money to the seller of the invoice and then usually gets the money back from the original client.
Prosecutors say Newton and Snow used Dataforce’s relationship with Amerifactors Financial Group to submit inflated invoices to Amerifactors that didn’t reflect the work that was done. In addition, DOJ believes Newton and Snow were submitting the same Dataforce invoices for factoring to both Amerifactors and Prestige Funding.
Prosecutors think the scheme started in 2003 and netted Newton and Snow over $7.2 million from Prestige Funding and its over 60 investors as well as Amerifactors.
DOJ says Newton and Snow managed to raise over $8 million from investors during that time to fund Prestige Funding and that Newton managed to pocket over $3 million of stolen money into a personal bank account.
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.