WHEELING, W.Va. — A Wheeling businessman who defrauded 20 investors out of millions of dollars was sentenced to federal prison Thursday.
Jeffrey James Morris, 37, was sentenced to five years after pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of tax fraud in February of this year.
This sentence comes after Morris was indicted on 18 counts of wire fraud and 10 counts of failure to pay taxes in September 2023.
“So, today in federal court, in Wheeling, Judge John Preston Bailey, sentenced Jeffrey Morris to 60 months in federal prison due to Morris’s scheme to defraud investors out of over 5 million dollars,” U.S. Attorney Bill Ihlenfeld told MetroNews.
Morris was a managing member of Roxby Devlopment, LLC, and he used misleading information to induce investments in the Scottish Rite Cathedral.
Ihlenfeld said that during the sentencing a victim gave a statement along with statements from people in favor of Morris, however the judge still decided on a five-year sentence.
“There were statements from one victim, statements from supporters on behalf of Mr. Morris,” Ihlenfeld said. “And the judge ultimately determined that the appropriate sentence would be five years in prison, he imposed the sentence and gave Mr. Morris until October 28th to self-report.”
The judge also ordered Morris to pay restitution and pay money back to the IRS, Ihlenfeld said.
“The judge also ordered that Mr. Morris repay 4.9 million dollars in restitution to the victims as well as slightly over half a million dollars to the Internal Revenue Service.” Ihlenfeld said.
He said that at the end of the day this case was about the victims, helping the ones that have no more savings or have to work towards retirement.
“That’s what this case was really about in the end were the victims who lost their life savings or invested so much with Mr. Morris that they can’t retire now, and they have to work many more years now to get to retirement, “Ihlenfeld said.
Ihlenfeld urges people if they plan on investing any amount of money to someone, they need to ask to see company’s books.
“If you’re considering investing an amount of money that is meaningful to you should ask to see the books of whoever it is that you are investing with, “Ihlenfeld said.
He even said that if you don’t have an accounting background make sure to hire someone who can look at the books for you to save you from any type of fraud happening to you and Ihlenfeld and his team will pursue any type of assets that Morris has in order to start paying the restitution and the money to the IRS.