Utah Businessman Sentenced for Smartphone Scam

Salt Lake City, Utah – In a shocking turn of events, Chad Leon Sayers, 60, of Midvale, Utah, was sentenced to 29 months’ imprisonment for defrauding hundreds of trusting investors throughout the United States out of $10 million in his smartphone company, SAYGUS.

The sentence, imposed by U.S. District Court Judge David Sam, will run consecutively to Sayers’ existing sentence of 41 months’ imprisonment, which was imposed in a separate wire fraud case. This brings the total to 56 months. In addition to the prison time, Sayers was also ordered to 12 months’ supervised release and pay $10,250,834.53 in restitution and a forfeiture money judgment in the same amount.

According to court documents and statements made at the change of plea hearing, from 2006 to 2020, Sayers defrauded approximately 300 investors out of $10 million by lying about SAYGUS being on the brink of a multi-billion-dollar payout. He claimed to investors that he was developing a smartphone called the “V” phone and then later the “V-Squared.” He also claimed that a well-known wireless company agreed with SAYGUS to sell and support its phones.

Sayers told investors that they were capable of receiving 100 times their original investment and that funds would go toward the research, design, and manufacturing of the new smartphone, when in fact no cell phones were being manufactured. Sayers also claimed that SAYGUS was only raising funds through a stock offering to accredited investors, when in fact it was not.

For over a decade, Sayers spent investment funds on various expenses, including personal loans, personal credit card bills, personal rent, personal legal fees, personal BMW car payments, office rent, Ponzi-like “note repayments;” investor lawsuit settlements; legal fees and $144,773 on shopping, entertainment, food and personal care.

To support his fraudulent scheme and create the impression of a successful consumer product technology company, Sayers rented office space for SAYGUS, occupying approximately 25,990 square feet (3 floors) for approximately 10 employees. On 26 different occasions, Sayers tweeted that the smartphone would be launching or available by a certain date, when in fact it never launched. Sayers even sent out newsletters to investors, updating them on developments.

The case was investigated jointly by the Utah Division of Securities and the FBI Salt Lake City Field Office. U.S. Attorney Trina A. Higgins of the District of Utah made the announcement. Assistant United States Attorneys Ruth Hackford-Peer, Jacob J. Strain, and Special Assistant United States Attorney Sachiko Jepson of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah prosecuted the case.