Matthew Dane Billingsley, Wire Fraud, California 2023

Fresno Man Sentenced to 7.5 Years in Prison for $30-plus Million Wire Fraud Scheme

A Fresno man was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for his role in a wire fraud scheme that netted him over $30 million.

Mattew Dane Billingsley, 40, of Fresno, was handed a seven-year and six-month prison sentence by U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Thurston for his role in the scheme, which saw him defraud individual lenders and financial institutions out of millions of dollars.

'The defendant defrauded victims out of millions of dollars. Over nearly five years, he repeatedly and deliberately committed crimes by altering documents, forging signatures, and otherwise lying,' said U.S. Attorney Eric Grant.

The scheme, which ran from June 2018 to February 2023, saw Billingsley make false representations about having a brokerage account with millions of dollars in assets to serve as collateral for loans. He used fabricated brokerage account statements to obtain more than $30 million in loans from individual lenders and financial institutions.

To obtain one of the loans, Billingsley used a Fresno restaurant owner's name and signature on a profit-sharing agreement that he created and forged. He presented the false and fraudulent profit-sharing agreement to a financial institution to obtain a loan.

This case was the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the IRS Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brittany M. Gunter prosecuted the case.

Matthew Dane Billingsley, 40, of Fresno, was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison for wire fraud in a scheme that defrauded individual lenders and financial institutions out of more than $30 million.

The case serves as a reminder that those who engage in deception to defraud lenders and abuse the financial system will be held accountable.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edca/pr/fresno-man-sentenced-75-years-prison-30-plus-million-fraud-scheme