British Fraudster Running Investment Swindle And Conducting Pitchfests In Utah Sent Email To Undercover Agent, Feds Say; John S. Dudley Pleads Gulity To Wire Fraud

John S. Dudley, a citizen of Great Britain, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud in federal court in Utah in an investment-fraud case that featured the presence of an undercover agent who’d received email from Dudley, the office of U.S. Attorney David B. Barlow said.

The agent — from the Utah Department of Commerce’s Division of Securities — was described as “UA” in court papers, prosecutors said.

As part of a plea agreement, Dudley will not contest a restitution order for more than $6.8 million, prosecutors said. When Dudley completes his sentence, prosecutors expect to deport him under the terms of the plea. Prosecutors have recommended a prison sentence of five years.

Dudley was accused in 2011 of a Ponzi scheme that married multiple components, including pitchfests for “various investment programs, including a foreign exchange trading program, mining speculation, European and domestic stock options and commodity trading, and a human jetpack rocket suit,” prosecutors said at the time.

The pitchfests were described as “bounce nights” or “Tashi group meetings,” prosecutors said at the time.

From a statement by prosecutors on the Dudley guilty plea (italics added):

The indictment alleged Dudley made a variety of representations to potential investors, including telling them they could expect monthly returns of 5-10 percent; that he had not suffered a trading loss since 1978; that investors’ funds would be used exclusively for investment purposes; that he had personally done very well in his investments and had never made less than 5 percent per month over the last 30 years; that investors’ money was backed by a “senior life settlement policy” that reduced or eliminated investors’ risk of loss; and that investing with him was an exclusive opportunity with only a limited number of investors allowed to invest with him at one time.

As a part of the plea agreement reached with federal prosecutors, Dudley admitted he sent an e-mail to an individual, identified as U.A. in the plea agreement, with the subject line “Re: Castle Creek Bank Details.” He admitted that the e-mail was a part of his attempt to execute the fraud scheme by obtaining money under false representations. Investor U.A. is identified in the indictment as a Utah Department of Commerce’s Division of Securities investigator acting in an undercover capacity in the indictment.