CLEVELAND — A Lakewood man was sentenced to 48 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Charles E. Fleming after he pleaded guilty to wire fraud as part of a Ponzi scheme.
According to court documents, 41-year-old Paul Kimmins Lebo convinced nearly 100 people to invest in a non-operational hedge fund from August 2017 through October 2021.
Through false promises of future equity ownership and options trading strategies, Lebo assured the victims that their investments were protected and fully refundable.
Lebo also took short-term loans from investors by providing false explanations of why he needed the money and false assurances about his ability to repay the loans.
The money Lebo was able to obtain from the victims was used for "personal expences, bad stock market trades, unsuccessful attempts to acquire real estate and to repay earlier investors."
Lebo was also found to have defrauded other victims by offering items for sale, taking the sale money and failing to deliver the items to buyers.
Judge Fleming also ordered Lebo to pay $635,000 in restitution to the victims and will serve three years of supervised release.