CONCORD, N.H. - William Orestis, 64, of Greenland, New Hampshire, was sentenced in United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire to 33 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release for a mail fraud offense, announced United States Attorney John P. Kacavas.
From approximately November 2003 to July 2010, Orestis and Steven Lewis solicited money on behalf of a sham investment company, Equivest, LLC. Orestis and Lewis falsely assured investors that their money would be used to purchase foreign currencies and to support Equivest’s business activities. They provided bogus account statements to investors that falsely claimed that impressive profits had been earned in Equivest accounts by other investors. They also falsely assured many investors that their accounts would earn 12 percent interest annually and promised other investors that their accounts would earn income at rates as high as 18 percent annually.
Orestis and Lewis fraudulently obtained approximately $696,732 from investors, but used only a portion of that money to buy foreign currencies and made payments totaling approximately $124,715 to some investors in order to lull them into a false sense of security regarding the performance of their Equivest accounts. As a result, the investors were defrauded of about $572,017.
On Dec. 11, 2012, Lewis pled guilty to wire fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 28, 2013.
The case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Bob Kinsella.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
