Connecticut man who ran Ponzi scheme as teen gets prison: U.S.

[October 27, 2016]  By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) - A Connecticut man was sentenced on Wednesday to three years in prison after being convicted of bilking investors out of nearly $500,000 in a failed Ponzi scheme he ran while still a teenager, federal prosecutors said.

Ian Parker Bick, now 21, of Danbury, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Alker Meyer in New Haven.

The judge also ordered Bick to spend at least one year in home confinement following his release from prison, and to make full restitution to his victims.

Jurors had convicted Bick last November on six counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering.

Jonathan Einhorn, a lawyer for Bick, was not immediately available for comment after the sentencing.

Prosecutors said Bick began soliciting funds from friends, former classmates and their parents in 2012, when he was 17, using entities such as This Is Where It's At Entertainment and Planet Youth Entertainment.

Bick was accused of promising high returns by promoting concerts and reselling electronics online, only to use money he raised for personal expenses such as hotel stays and jet skis, and to make assorted payments to some of his investors.

In court papers, Einhorn had argued that no prison time was appropriate, citing the defendant's immaturity and the greed of his victims, primarily adults, "seeking usurious interest rates in loaning him money."

Prosecutors had contended that a 6-1/2-year or longer sentence could be justified. They said Bick had not shown remorse, and had after his conviction used investor money to gamble at the Empire City Casino in Yonkers, New York.
 

The case is U.S. v. Bick, U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut, No. 15-cr-00001.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Diane Craft)

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