A Corona man was sentenced Tuesday to nearly six years in federal prison for swindling investors out of at least $3 million by claiming to be a billionaire who could access hundreds of millions in cash in an overseas bank account in exchange for up-front fees.
Kenneth Brewington, 55, was additionally ordered by a Denver federal court judge to serve three years of supervised release following his 70-month prison term and pay $563,526 in restitution, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Brewington was convicted in May of five counts of wire fraud, two counts of engaging in monetary transactions involving property derived from illicit activity and one count each of mail fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and laundering monetary instruments.
According to evidence presented at trial, beginning in 2009, Brewington told victims that he required millions of dollars in supposed fees in order to access his purported extraordinary wealth abroad, which in turn could be used for financing.
During the scheme, Brewington and his co-conspirators sold promissory notes to victims, including through a financial-services marketing company based in Denver called Compass Financial Solutions, according to the DOJ.
Brewington and his co-conspirators falsely represented to their victims that their money would be used to pay for, among other things, bank transaction fees and tax penalties to the IRS, prosecutors said.
The monies were ultimately used to pay off original seed investors, much like a Ponzi scheme, or used to amortize debts owed by Brewington and his two co-conspirators, as well as other personal expenses, prosecutors said.
Evidence showed Brewington was not, in fact, wealthy and was instead struggling to pay his personal debts, according to the DOJ.
The U.S. Postal Service, the Department of Justice and the Securities & Exchange Commission jointly investigated the case.