RICHMOND, VA—James Ashby Moncure, Jr., 42, of Fredericksburg, Virginia, was sentenced today to 65 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release for wire fraud and engaging in unlawful monetary transactions. Additionally, Moncure was ordered to pay approximately $8.3 million in restitution to his victims.

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 Jankowski, Special Agent in Charge, Washington, D.C. Field Office, IRS-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI); and David M. McGinnis, Acting Postal Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS)—Washington Division, made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson.

Moncure pleaded guilty to these charges on Feb. 6, 2015. According to court documents, Moncure agreed that, as a partial owner of Moncure Brothers LLC, he had partnered with The Silver Companies to develop property known as the Quantico Corporate Center at Stafford (QCCS), a business park located in Stafford County, Virginia., adjacent to Marine Corps Base Quantico. 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, Moncure claimed that the investment funds would be used for acquiring and developing land for the QCCS or another specified property. He also made misrepresentations about how the promised returns would be generated and the security of investment funds. Instead, Moncure misappropriated a significant amount of investor funds for payment of returns to earlier investors and transfers to investment trading accounts from which he day-traded stocks and options.

This case was investigated by FBI’s Fredericksburg Resident Agency, IRS-CI, and USPIS. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael Gill and Katherine Lee Martin prosecuted the case.

This investigation was 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 by searching for Case No. 3:14-cr-137.