|
TRENTON
- Attorney General Anne Milgram and Criminal
Justice Director Gregory A. Paw announced
that a former Rahway man, now serving a
state prison term, has been ordered to serve
additional prison time for stealing more
than $35,000 by defrauding investors over
the Internet and implementing a check kiting
scheme.
John
G. Messina, 41, was sentenced today to three
years in state prison by Superior Court
Judge Joseph P. Donohue in Union County.
Messina was sentenced in March 2006 to a
three-year prison term for an unrelated
fraud conviction. The new three-year sentence
will run from April 9, when he entered a
guilty plea, so part will run concurrently
with the remaining portion of his prior
sentence and part will be added to the end
of the prior sentence. He also was ordered
to pay $35,500 in restitution to his victims.
Messina pleaded guilty to two counts of
theft by deception.
Messina
admitted he advertised online at vFinance.com
– a site where entrepreneurs can link
up with potential sources of investment
capital – claiming he could obtain
investors and investment capital for businesses.
Messina admitted that between October and
November 2004, he received $9,000 from one
victim by falsely claiming he could secure
more than $2 million from investors for
the victim’s online real estate business.
The state investigation further determined
that Messina fraudulently represented to
the victim that he would get him a $65,000
loan.
Messina
also admitted that between November and
December 2004, he fraudulently accepted
$5,900 from another victim. He told the
victim he had raised $350,000 that was in
an account ready to be disbursed. Messina
also provided the victim with a fraudulent
“letter of intent” regarding
the purported funds to use as collateral
with a bank. Messina never obtained investors
or raised money for the victim, who was
seeking financing for an online business
to sell software to veterinarians, fish
farmers, public aquariums and universities.
Messina
was ordered to pay $20,600 in restitution
to Bank of America for kiting checks. Messina
deposited $20,600 in worthless checks from
Ameritrade into his mother’s Bank
of America bank account, withdrawing the
check amounts before the checks bounced.
Deputy
Attorney General Kenneth Sharpe of the Division’s
Computer Analysis and Technology Unit represented
the Division of Criminal Justice at sentencing.
#
# # |
