Investment fraud scheme nets felon extra prison time

A Las Vegas felon who defrauded more than 50 people out of a total of
$4.3 million in an investment fraud scheme was sentenced Tuesday to 11½ years in prison.

Bryan J. Egan, 38, also was ordered to pay $2.7 million in restitution.

Senior U.S. District Judge Philip Pro told Egan, who had pleaded guilty to 12 counts of wire fraud and one count of bank fraud, that he would have to serve extra prison time because of his criminal history.

Pro ordered Egan to serve the hefty prison sentence after the three years behind bars he received in December 2010 for violating the terms of his supervised release on a previous bank fraud conviction.

"Mr. Egan was only out of prison for two months before he decided to prey on more victims," Nevada U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden said in a news release. "If an investment 'tip' sounds too good to be true, it probably is, and before turning your money over to anyone for investment purposes, you should check their background carefully."

While he was on supervised release from September 2006 to March 2010, Egan persuaded people, mostly through online offers, to pay him fees for help in obtaining lines of credit with banks, according to court documents.

Egan falsely told his victims that he had obtained lines of credit for others, and he persuaded them to make financial investments by falsely stating they would get back large weekly returns.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135.