Wentzville Man Sentenced on Fraud Charges

St. Louis, MO – JAMES STALEY was sentenced to 84 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $3,313,568 on charges involving his scheme to defraud investors by making false promises of high rates of return and minimal risk.  With his April plea, Staley admitted to defrauding sixteen investors/lenders by causing them to invest over $3.3 million, giving him commissions totaling over $570,000.

According to court documents, in 2007 James Staley operated Wealth Financial International.  That same year, he became a sales agent for a Premium Financing Company located in California known as B & B Equity.  As a sales agent, Staley found individuals to provide loans for life insurance policies.  In many instances, several of these investor/lender’s funds were bundled together to provide financing to purchase one life insurance policy.  Staley received a commission for each investor/lender that he found to contribute financing for the purchasing of the life insurance policies. B & B required the lender/investor to invest in the insurance policy for a fixed period of time, varying from 18 months to two years.  During this period of time, Staley represented to clients of Wealth Financial that B & B Premium Financing Company would sell the bundled insurance policies on the open market with guaranteed returns. However, Staley was well aware that if B & B was unable to secure a buyer for the bundled insurance policies, his clients would lose all their monies invested in the Premium Financing product sold by B & B.

Staley, Wentzville, Missouri, pled guilty in April to four felony counts of wire fraud.  He appeared today for sentencing before United States District Judge E. Richard Webber.

This case was investigated by Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Assistant United States Attorneys Dianna Collins and Dorothy McMurtry handled the case for the U.S. Attorney's Office.