Man who ran investment scam since he was a teen sentenced to federal prison

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    Atlanta, GA (WGCL) — A 23-year-old man who ran an investment scam since he was a teenager was sentenced to federal prison.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, Kevin Perry, 23, of Cartersville, led investors to believe his investment fund, Lucrative Pips, was earning substantial profits in the foreign currency market, “FOREX”.

Perry were able to get investors by telling them their investments were virtually risk-free.

A spokesperson with the U.S. Attorney’s office said Perry’s fund never made any money and Perry used investor funds to “enrich himself” and to pay off other investors, with the goal of getting other investors to invest in his fund.

After a federal agency filed a complaint against Perry, he promised an undercover FBI agent that a $10,000 investment in the fund would return a profit of $19,000 to $25,000 per month.

“Perry carelessly continued his fraudulent investments even after a civil complaint was filed against him, thinking he was untouchable”, said Chris Hacker, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. “Hopefully, this sentence sends a message that the FBI will find criminals who greedily prey on investors, no matter how clever they believe their scheme to be.”

“Perry’s fraud caused unsuspecting investors to lose their hard-earned money,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Kurt R. Erskine. “During this pandemic, many have lost jobs and businesses while criminals continued to prey on unsuspecting citizens. Perry’s brazen actions, which included his continued scamming after a complaint was filed ordering him to cease, landed him in prison.”

Perry’s scheme caused investors to lose more than $430,000, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Perry was sentenced to three years and five months in prison and he was ordered to pay $438,799 in restitution.

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