A Florida businessman was sentenced to 46 months in prison for defrauding clients in four states through loan agreements to finance construction projects and then causing more than $8 million in victim losses by misappropriating funds.
David Ingram, 73, previously pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. According to the charges brought against him, Ingram was founder and managing member of AltosGroups, LLC, which purported to have warehouse lines of credit with major international financial institutions. AltosGroups signed contracts with commercial real estate developers, agreeing to secure funding to finance construction projects.
Ingram required that developers pay initial deposits to gain access to lines of credit he claimed his company maintained. However, AltosGroups had no lines of credit. Ingram told his victims that their deposits would be kept in an account specifically dedicated towards funding their respective construction projects, but in reality he diverted the money to accounts belonging to him or his wife and used it for personal expenses and other business purposes, including the transfer of $3 million to a Mexican financial institution.
The defendant failed to fund the loans and did not return the deposits to the victims who were based in Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, and Utah.
“Schemes as shady as this one merit aggressive investigation by IRS-Criminal Investigation,” said St. Louis Field Office Special Agent in Charge William Steenson. “Mr. Ingram caused a great deal of financial loss to the four victims all to fill his own bank accounts with their hard-earned money. Now it’s time for him to be held accountable for his actions.”
