District Court Chief Judge Curtis V. Gomez on Thursday sentenced Janice D. Rey to 125 months in prison – more than 10 years – and ordered her to pay $3 million in restitution to individual victims for her role in a scheme that defrauded investors of millions of dollars, announced U.S. Attorney Ronald W. Sharpe and IRS Special Agent-in-Charge Jose A. Gonzalez.
Rey also was ordered to pay restitution to the Virgin Islands Bureau of Internal Revenue in the amount of $550,681.
Rey’s co-conspirator, Devon McLean, was sentenced to 70 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $3 million. The court also entered a $5.5 million forfeiture money judgment against both Rey and McLean.
Rey and McLean were convicted April 4 by a federal jury. Rey was found guilty of one count of conspiracy, eight counts of wire fraud, 43 counts of money laundering and four counts of tax evasion under Virgin Islands law. Rey was sentenced to 60 months in prison for her conviction on the territorial tax charges, to be served concurrently with her sentence on the federal charges.
McLean pleaded guilty March 5 to wire fraud.
According to the evidence presented at Rey’s trial, Rey and McLean organized Paramount Group LLC and opened a bank account for the partnership in Nevada. Rey opened a store front location in St. Thomas called Rey Financial, which she used to meet with potential investors. Rey made false material representations and material factual omissions to potential investors in order to induce them to invest with Paramount Group. For example, Rey told the investors that their investments were safe, that Paramount Group was a part of Haliburton, that the investors were investing in “platform investments,” and that they would double their money in less than a year.
The case was investigated by the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, according to Sharpe. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kim L. Chisholm and Everard Potter.
