Former Hilliard Resident Sentenced to Five-Year Prison Term for Running $1.5 Million Investment Fraud

COLUMBUS—Jeffrey G. Kelly, 45, formerly of Hilliard, Ohio, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 60 months’ imprisonment for defrauding investors of $1.5 million through a scheme he conducted between 2006 and 2011.

Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, and Kevin R. Cornelius, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), announced the sentence imposed today by U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus, Jr.

Kelly owned and operated several businesses in the Columbus area named Superior Financial Resources LLC, J.G. Kelly Financial Group LLC, J.G. Kelly Equities Group LLC, and JGK Group LLC. He solicited clients and potential clients to invest in his businesses, promising that their money would be deposited in investment funds that included stocks, real estate investment trusts, bonds, and other investments.

Kelly received approximately $1,523,710 from investor clients. Kelly never invested the clients’ money but instead used the investors’ funds to pay his personal and business expenses as well as to repay earlier investors. The victims Kelly’s investment scheme included family friends, relatives, fellow church members, parents of his children’s schoolmates, and a groomsman from his wedding.

A federal grand jury indicted Kelly in December 2012. Kelly pleaded guilty on May 30, 2013, to offenses involving wire fraud and interstate transportation of a security taken by fraud. As part of the sentence imposed today, Kelly was ordered to pay more than $1.1 million in restitution to the victims of his crimes, in addition to serving three years on supervised release following his prison term. Kelly was remanded into the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service at the conclusion of today’s hearing to immediately begin serving his prison sentence.

U.S. Attorney Stewart commended the FBI agents who investigated the case with the assistance of the Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Securities and Assistant U.S. Attorney Dale E. Williams, Jr., who prosecuted the case.

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