RICHMOND, VA—James Ashby Moncure, Jr., 42, of Fredericksburg, Va., was charged with five counts of Wire Fraud, one count of Mail Fraud, and two counts of Engaging in Unlawful Monetary Transactions. If convicted on all charges, Moncure faces up to 140 years in prison and a fine of $2,000,000.

Dana J. Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Adam S. Lee, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Richmond Field Office; Thomas J. Kelly, Special Agent in Charge, Washington, D.C. Field Office, IRS-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI); and Gary Barksdale, Inspector in Charge of the Washington Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, made the announcement after the indictment was returned by the federal Grand Jury.

According to allegations in the indictment, Moncure, as a partial owner of Moncure Brothers LLC, partnered with The Silver Companies to develop property known as the Quantico Corporate Center (QCC). The QCC is a business park located in Stafford County, Va., along Interstate 95 and U.S. 1, adjacent to Marine Corps Base Quantico. The indictment alleges that beginning prior to January 2010 and continuing through March 2014, Moncure solicited individuals for investment opportunities in exchange for short term promissory notes offering returns ranging from 10 percent up to 25 percent. In connection with those investments, the indictment charges, Moncure represented that the investment funds would be used for acquiring and developing land for the QCC or another specified property. The defendant also allegedly made misrepresentations about how the promised returns would be generated and about the security of investment funds.

The indictment alleges that Moncure misappropriated the overwhelming majority of the more than $9 million in investment funds he received, using them for payment of returns to earlier investors, transfers to investment trading accounts from which the defendant day-traded stocks and options, and other unauthorized purposes. The indictment charges several transactions where the defendant received investment funds, followed by the defendant’s immediate wire transfer of those same funds to his Options Express, Inc., or Fidelity Investments trading accounts. This case was investigated by FBI’s Fredericksburg Field Office, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations, and U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gill is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

This investigation has been coordinated by the Virginia Financial and Securities Fraud Task Force, an unprecedented partnership between criminal investigators and civil regulators to investigate and prosecute complex financial fraud cases in the nation and in Virginia. The task force is comprised of several federal and state agencies, including the Virginia Attorney General’s Office, and it also serves as an investigative arm of the President’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force (FFETF), an interagency national task force. For more information on FFETF, visit www.stopfraud.gov.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER.