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He pleaded guilty to wire fraud and faces up to 20 years in prison.
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A Texas man who dreamed of a life of luxury “scammed” to get the lifestyle he dreamed of at the age of 23, according to federal officials.
J. Nicholas Bryant, now 26, spent about two years on charter flights, outings on private yachts, fancy steak dinners, fancy cars, and fancy hotels, according to a Nov. 9 U.S. Attorney’s Office news release. I was fraudulent about my accommodation etc. Texas area.
Bryant now pleads guilty to wire fraud and faces up to 20 years in prison. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment by McClatchy News on Nov. 10.
“Like many of his peers, Nicholas Bryant apparently coveted the life of the rich and famous,” U.S. Attorney Chad E. Meacham said in a release. “Unlike his peers, he was unwilling to let lack of funds get in the way of his fantasies. “It’s going to be Delby or Frank Abagnale.”
According to authorities, Bryant tricked at least 50 victims by booking luxury services and using online payment platforms such as QuickBooks to appear to have paid.
But then he would reverse a payment he didn’t really mean to pay, officials said.
According to the news release, “Although the software would generate payment confirmations immediately, Bryant, knowing that it would take several days to notify the victim that the payment had been canceled, advised vendors and business owners to keep payment due. I convinced them that the payment would be made as soon as it came.”
As an example, court records show that Bryant started $76,000 in payments for a round-trip charter flight from Lubbock to Miami. But when he got to Florida, the charterers learned that his first bill had failed.
Bryant promised to pay the balance via wire transfer but did not follow through, the official said. His plane landed in Dallas.
“Thus, he has completed more than a dozen private jet flights, half-day sailings on 90-foot yachts, dozens of luxury hotel rooms, sumptuous steak and champagne dinners, and five cars worth more than half a million dollars. got a luxury car,” according to the release. “He also charged substantial material and labor costs for the $980,000 housing and pool.”
According to court records, Bryant added “legitimacy” to his plans by posing as the son of a wealthy oil investor and an employee of several companies.
“He impersonated a fictional character, contacted victims under impersonated names, and created fake websites to further his plans,” the official said. “On at least one occasion, he persuaded the owner of an oil and gas company who had previously worked with him and trusted him to advance approximately $150,000 to open a fictional oil field.”
In total, Bryant admitted to defrauding fraud victims of more than $1.5 million.
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