KANSAS CITY, KAN. – An Olathe man was indicted Thursday on federal charges of devising a fraud scheme that cost a Turkish investor millions of dollars, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said.

Nagy Shehata, 55, Olathe, Kan., and Laura Lee Sorsby, 62, Texarkana, Texas, are charged in a superseding indictment with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and four counts of wire fraud. In addition, Shehata is charged with two counts of money laundering.

The indictment alleges the crimes occurred while Shehata was the president and registered agent for Premier Investment Group, Inc., and Sorsby was president of Can Am International, LLC, headquartered in Dallas. They offered an investor in Turkey investments in building a shopping mall in Turkey and a hospital in Syria. The investor transferred 6 million Euros (more than $8 million) for the hospital project. The defendants diverted the money to their own use. Shehata bought an $855,000 house and an $111,000 auto. Sorsby bought a $77,000 car and a $163,000 house. They promised the investor to return his money but they never gave the money back.

If convicted, they face a maximum penalty of 20 years and a fine up to $250,000 on the conspiracy count and each of the wire fraud counts, and a maximum penalty of 10 years and a fine up to $250,000 on each of the money laundering counts. The FBI investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Oakley is prosecuting.

KANSAS CITY, KAN. – An Olathe man pleaded guilty Monday to stealing more than $8 million from a Turkish investor, U.S. Attorney Tom Beall said.

Nagy Shehata, 57, Olathe, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. In his plea, he admitted the crime occurred while he was president of Premier Investment Group, a corporation registered in Missouri. During that time, Shehata formed a joint partnership with co-defendant Laura Lee Sorsby, a Texas resident who conducted business through a company called Can Am International.

The victim was a Turkish resident who was the founder of a hospital in Istanbul, Turkey. The defendants offered the victim the opportunity to invest in a project that started out as a plan to build a hospital in Syria and evolved into a plan to build a shopping mall in Iraq. Based on the defendants’ false statements, the victim transferred money to Shehata’s bank in New York. Shehata wired the money from New York to his bank accounts in Kansas.

The defendants did not use the money for the hospital or shopping mall projects. Instead, Shehata bought an $111,000 car and an $855,000 house.

Sentencing will be set for a later time. Shehata faces up to 20 years in federal prison and restitution of more than $8.2 million. Beall commended The FBI and Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Oakley for their work on the case.

NEWARK, N.J. –Three men from New Jersey and another from Nevada have been arrested for allegedly defrauding two individual victims out of approximately $800,000 through an advance fee scheme, Acting U.S. Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick announced today.

Harold Mignott, 54, of Voorhees, New Jersey, James Adkins, 64, of Hillside, New Jersey, Jerrid Douglas, 43, of Freehold, New Jersey, and Roy Johannes Gillar, 44, of Las Vegas, are each charged by criminal complaint with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Mignott, Adkins, and Douglas were arrested this morning and made their initial court appearances this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael A. Hammer in Newark federal Court. Gillar was arrested yesterday and appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy J. Koppe in Las Vegas federal court. Gillar was detained. Mignott, Adkins, and Douglas were released on $200,000 unsecured bonds.

According to the complaint:

From March 2016 through June 2016, Mignott, Adkins, Douglas, and Gillar allegedly agreed to defraud an entity identified in the complaint as “Victim Company A” out of approximately $1 million.

As part of the scheme, the defendants fraudulently induced two individuals who ran Victim Company A to have Victim Company A enter a joint-venture agreement with their New Jersey-based shell company. The defendants falsely represented that their company could acquire and provide Victim Company A with a “standby letter of credit” backed by Mexican gold bonds. A standby letter of credit is a guarantee of payment issued by a bank on behalf of a client that is used should the client fail to fulfill a contractual commitment with a third party.

Victim Company A wanted access to the standby letter of credit so it could purchase raw gold overseas and sell it to gold refineries. As part of the joint-venture agreement, Victim Company A agreed to pay the defendants $1 million for the bank fee associated with the standby letter of credit.

In order to cover up the scheme and convince the victims to approve transfer of the funds, the defendants made numerous verbal and written misrepresentations, including providing the victims with a phony letter from a major international bank saying that it was ready, willing, and able to provide a €1 billion standby letter of credit to the defendants’ shell company.

However, after Victim Company A transmitted $800,000 of the $1 million to the defendants, the defendants failed to provide Victim Company A with a standby letter of credit or anything of value. Instead, the defendants misappropriated Victim Company A’s money for their personal use on items like luxury cars, expensive watches, mortgage payments on their personal residences, and large cash withdrawals.

At no time since March 2016 have the defendants or any company owned or operated by them provided anything of value to Victim Company A in exchange for Victim Company A’s $800,000. The defendants also have not returned any of the money to Victim Company A.

The conspiracy to commit wire fraud charge carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Acting U.S. Attorney Fitzpatrick credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Timothy Gallagher in Newark, with the investigation leading to the arrests.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason S. Gould of the U.S. Attorney’s Office General Crimes Unit in Newark.

The charges and allegations contained in the complaint are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.