Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that JOSHUA HENNER was sentenced Friday, September 20, 2024, to 30 months in prison by U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl for running two separate fraud schemes that stole over $2.4 million from victims. HENNER previously pled guilty to one count of wire fraud before U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Joshua Henner deceived victims into loaning him millions of dollars across not one, but two fraud schemes. Henner’s crimes ruined the lives of his victims: some have postponed retirement, others lost their life savings, while others have been forced to change professions or work multiple jobs to account for their significant financial losses. This sentence sends the message that those who defraud others will receive significant prison sentences.”
According to the allegations contained in the Indictment, the plea agreement, and other public filings and statements made in court:
From at least in or about March 2022 through at least in or about December 2022, HENNER ran two schemes that defrauded victims out of at least $2.4 million. In the first scheme, HENNER solicited and obtained funds from victims based on representations that he had been an angel investor in a start-up (the “Company”) and that he needed funds to purchase additional shares in the Company to maintain his investment position.
To induce victims to give him funds, HENNER routinely made materially false oral and written statements, including lies about his previous investment in the Company and his ownership interest in the Company. Without their knowledge or authorization, HENNER misappropriated his victims’ funds by, among other things, transferring the funds to himself and other individuals.
HENNER also used, without authorization, the name and email address of a lawyer purportedly involved in the investments to communicate via email with his victims and foster the illusion that he was using the funds that his victims lent him for their intended purposes.
In a second scheme, HENNER also induced at least six victims to lend him money to renovate an apartment that he did not own. To carry out this fraud, HENNER, among other things, informed victims that he had contracted with a renovations company and created a fraudulent email address with the real name of an employee of the renovation company. In truth and in fact, HENNER rented and did not own the apartment, HENNER was prohibited from renovating the apartment, and HENNER did not use the funds that his victims gave him to renovate the apartment.
In addition to the prison term, HENNER, 37, of New York, New York, was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $2,452,480 and make restitution in an amount to be determined.
Mr. Williams praised the outstanding investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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