More on the John Nock case:
► Fayetteville Investment Banker Faces Guilty Verdict in $18M Fraud Case
► 4 Convicted in $18M Investment Fraud Scheme
► Michigan Case Offers Look Into Fraud Charges Against John Nock
► Another Investor Knocks Nock
Fayetteville investment banker John Nock has been sentenced to 20 years and 10 months in prison after being convicted in an $18 million fraud and money laundering scheme.
Nock learned his fate Thursday in federal court after an initial sentencing hearing in February was postponed. Federal prosecutors had asked that Nock, 55, be sentenced to between 27 years and nearly 33 years in prison.
Nock asked for a sentence below the guideline range because he is less likely to reoffend because of his age and lack of a prior criminal record.
Three of Nock’s associates were also sentenced last week. Brian Brittsan, 67, of Boise, Idaho, was sentenced to 10 years in prison; Kevin Griffith, 68, of Orem, Utah, was sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison; and Alexander Ituma, 57, of Lehi, Utah, was sentenced to eight years and four months in prison.
The case revolved around the Brittingham Group, which Nock founded and which promised returns as high as 300% within 20 to 30 days, according to authorities. But in reality, the group could not and did not produce those returns on their investment offerings.
Authorities said the scheme ran from 2013 to 2021 and often involved phony standby letters of credit from the Royal Bank of Scotland in London. Once the defendants had the victims’ money, they transferred it through a complex web of worldwide bank accounts.
The IRS and FBI led the investigation of Brittingham Group.
“For nearly a decade, the defendants brazenly and repeatedly lied to investors, defrauding them out of more than $18 million and laundering the proceeds of their crime through a complex web of bank accounts around the world,” Nicole M. Argentieri, principal deputy assistant attorney general , and head of the U.S. Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said in a statement.
Nock and his associates were convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, multiple counts of wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Nock was also convicted of money laundering for using victim funds to pay a prior debt unrelated to The Brittingham Group.
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