August 13, 2014

Ohio Man Sentenced for Defrauding Investors

PITTSBURGH—An Ohio man has been sentenced in federal court to five years’ probation, including four months in a community confinement center followed by four months home confinement, on his conviction of wire fraud, United States Attorney David J. Hickton announced today.

On Aug. 12, 2014, Chief United States District Judge Joy Flowers Conti imposed the sentence on Daniel P. Lucas, 50, of East Liverpool, Ohio.

According to information presented to the court, Lucas defrauded three investors by representing that he was a successful currency trader and obtaining $78,000 from them for this purpose, and thereafter retaining and spending more than $49,000 for his own purposes, while earning no profits for investors and incurring more than $28,000 in currency trading loses.

Prior to imposing sentence, Judge Conti stated that Lucas’ stated plan—to repay the victims by turning his $1,500 into hundreds of thousands of dollars via currency trading—would be “just short of a miracle.”

Assistant United States Attorney Leo M. Dillon prosecuted this case on behalf of the government.

U.S. Attorney Hickton commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Lucas.