Sham investment advisor sentenced to 10 years

A 59-year-old Pocatello man was sentenced Tuesday in United States District Court to 120 months in prison for wire fraud, U.S. Attorney Bart M. Davis announced.

U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge also ordered Rick Guyon, also known as Richard Guyon, also known as Rick Garrison and also known as Mark Thomas to pay $1,956,400 in restitution to the victims and to serve three years of supervised release after he is released from prison.

Guyon pleaded guilty to the wire fraud offense on June 28, 2018.

According to court records, from 2015 through 2017, Guyon devised a scheme to defraud individual investors.

The scheme involved soliciting $1,956,400 from investors based on false and fraudulent representations about Guyon’s education, employment history, and financial condition, false and fraudulent representations that the money would be invested in financial markets, and that he would not collect any commissions on the investments. Once Guyon obtained the money, he spent it on personal expenses. To cover up what he had done, Guyon provided investors with false and fraudulent monthly account statements showing positive returns on investments.

According to court records, Guyon’s scheme to defraud investors (i) resulted in an actual loss of between $1,500,000 and $3,500,000; (ii) resulted in a substantial financial hardship to investor-victim R.F., who personally lost approximately $1,281,783 and (iii) involved the defendant acting as an organizer and leader of at least three other participants in the scheme.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.