Town and Country Securities Trader Gets Prison For $2.5 Million Fraud Scheme

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The U.S. Attorney's Office released the following details of the sentence and the case in a news release Friday.

Grahame E. Rhodes was sentenced to 63 months in prison, and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $1,866,598, involving an investment fraud scheme of approximately $2.5 million. 

The scheme ran from 1995 through 2011. Additionally, as part of his plea, Rhodes agreed to a money judgment in the amount of $1.4 million dollars and forfeiture of monies seized from his trading account.        

According to court documents filed at the time of his plea, Rhodes was a self-employed futures securities trader who solicited clients/investors, mainly family members, neighbors and friends, by promising them high rates of returns on their investments. Despite his promises, his investments were minimal and earned little or no return of income.  He returned some money to investors representing it to be profits, but it was actually money from new investors.  Rhodes told them he had invested their money when he had not, and delayed requests for withdrawal of their money by creating false excuses to justify the delay.  On many occasions he converted the money for his own personal use.             

Rhodes, 61, Town & Country, MO, pled guilty in December to one felony count of wire fraud, and appeared today for sentencing before United States District Judge Catherine D. Perry.