Ledyard Resident Sentenced to Federal Prison for Defrauding Investors of Island Resort Project

David B. Fein, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that CHRISTOPHER M. PEARSON, 51, of Ledyard, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Robert N. Chatigny in Hartford to 21 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for defrauding individuals who invested in an island resort project he purportedly was developing. On November 19, 2009, a jury found PEARSON guilty of eight counts of wire fraud stemming from the scheme.

According to the evidence disclosed during the trial, PEARSON, formerly a deputy chief operating officer for the Mashantucket-Pequot Tribal Nation, defrauded a number of investors out of $280,000 that he obtained from them based upon his representations that he would purchase land on the island of Roatan, Honduras, on their behalf. PEARSON represented that the land ultimately would be utilized for a resort and casino project that the tribe was sponsoring. PEARSON then collected money from the investors but never purchased property for them with the money. Instead, he diverted the money he received from investors for his own use, including boats, cars, vacations, and improvements to his waterfront home on the island of Roatan.

Today, Judge Chatigny ordered PEARSON to pay restitution to his victims.

This matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Eric J. Glover and David T. Huang.