John Foster, Wire Fraud, New Hampshire 2020

CONCORD – A federal judge handed down a harsh sentence to a Portsmouth man who exploited the trust of his victims and stole their money through a series of elaborate wire fraud schemes.

John Foster, 56, was sentenced on Thursday to 51 months in federal prison for wire fraud, United States Attorney Scott W. Murray announced today.

The defendant’s schemes, which spanned from 2014 to May 2018, involved multiple limited liability corporations (LLCs) that he used to defraud victims out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

One of the schemes involved Foster’s company, J.O. Foods, which facilitated the purchase and shipment of food to foreign countries. In 2018, Foster agreed to send several thousand pounds of lobster to Vietnam. A customer agreed to pay J.O Foods a total of $145,500 for the delivery of the lobster. Foster falsely assured the company that the lobster was being shipped and induced the customer to send him over $100,000.

In 2014, Foster owned JM Application, Design and Technologies, LLC, which purportedly developed and sold mobile computer applications. Foster used false representations to persuade seven individuals to invest $250,000 in the business and falsely claimed that the money was being used to further business development when Foster actually used the money for his personal benefit.

Foster previously pleaded guilty on January 8, 2020. U.S. Attorney Murray stated, ‘Fraud schemes exploit the trust of victims and steal their money.’ This defendant’s repeated use of fraudulent schemes to obtain large sums of money was reprehensible. This substantial sentence demonstrates that white collar crime will not be tolerated and those who commit these crimes will go to prison.’

The matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John Davis. Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert M. Kinsella previously participated in the prosecution of this case.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, the FBI will not hesitate to go after criminals like Foster who take advantage of unsuspecting victims for their own personal gain.