Michele Beckwith Acting U.S. Attorney | U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California
Michael Andrew Scott, a 38-year-old resident of Fair Oaks, has been sentenced to 33 months in prison for fraud related to medical device sales. The sentence was delivered by Senior U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller on Tuesday. Scott is also required to pay $376,044 in restitution to the victims, as announced by Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith.
Court documents reveal that between June 2018 and June 2022, Scott orchestrated a scheme through his company, Trusted Medical Partnership, to defraud investors. He falsely claimed that he or his company had purchase orders from healthcare providers for medical devices but lacked the funds to fulfill them. Scott secured loans from investors with promises of substantial returns and no risk.
In reality, these claims were false since there were no legitimate purchase orders from healthcare providers. To deceive some investors further, Scott fabricated or altered purchase orders. Healthcare providers confirmed these documents were either entirely fake or manipulated with false information.
Trusted Medical Partnership was not operating as a legitimate business despite being incorporated in California. It conducted no actual business transactions and was suspended in December 2021 before Scott sought investments under its name.
Investors who trusted Scott's false statements received minimal or no returns on their investments while he used the funds for gambling and personal expenses or paid previous investors to sustain the scheme. In total, at least 16 victims lost nearly $470,000 due to this fraud.
The case resulted from an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Dhruv M. Sharma.
