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Florida Con Man Sentenced to 10 Years for $9.5M Factoring Scam
OAKLAND – Karl James Stehlin, aka Carl Davis, a 63-year-old resident of Seminole, Florida, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay $2,158,250.04 in restitution for leading a scheme to defraud multiple companies out of more than $9,500,000.
According to court documents, Stehlin, along with co-defendant Gregory Scott Winters, aka Rob Sacci, 46, formerly of Ocala, Florida, and others, conspired to sell millions of dollars’ worth of fake invoices to a Walnut Creek company that provides services related to accounts receivable collateralized lending, also called “factoring.”
The scheme, which was perpetrated over a six-year period, involved the creation of multiple shell entities, including Nature’s Own Pharmacy, a company that was claimed to sell equine supplements. However, in reality, Nature’s Own Pharmacy is a phony shell corporation that sold no goods, and all of its purported customers were phony companies that purchased no goods and owed no legitimate debt.
Stehlin admitted that he and his co-conspirators created fake invoices that gave the appearance of the sale of goods from Nature’s Own Pharmacy to the shell company’s fake customers, and then sold the phony invoices to victims. The factoring companies involved in this case suffered losses in excess of $9,500,000, with one company being forced to close a branch and lay off employees as a result of the scheme.
Stehlin pleaded guilty to both counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud on January 25, 2018. Winters, his co-defendant, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud charges on October 12, 2017, and was sentenced to two years in prison.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers handed down the sentence, finding that Stehlin organized the scheme and defrauded multiple factoring companies out of more than $9,500,000. Stehlin has been in federal custody since his initial appearance and will begin serving his sentence immediately.
As part of his sentence, Stehlin was also ordered to serve a three-year period of supervised release. The losses suffered by the factoring companies involved in this case are a stark reminder of the devastating impact of white-collar crime on innocent victims.
Key Facts
- State: California
- Category: White Collar Crime|Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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