Josh S. Verne, 48, formerly of Gladwyne, Pennsylvania and now residing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was sentenced to over nine years in prison for defrauding dozens of investors and associates out of millions of dollars. United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that Verne received a sentence of 111 months in prison, three years of supervised release, a $1,300 special assessment, and was ordered to forfeit $12,173,759. The sentence was handed down by United States District Judge John F. Murphy.
Verne was indicted in August 2024 and pleaded guilty last March to nine counts of wire fraud, three counts of securities fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft.
According to court documents and admissions by Verne, he conducted several fraudulent schemes between 2017 and 2020. He misled investors by forging documents and making false claims about his business achievements and personal wealth. For example, he provided an investor with a forged Goldman Sachs statement showing family investment holdings exceeding $50 million. In reality, neither he nor his family had such accounts at Goldman Sachs.
Verne used funds from investors not for business purposes but to pay off prior debts and finance personal expenses such as renovations on a vacation property at the Jersey shore, private jet travel, political contributions, charitable donations in his name, and country club fees.
To prevent detection by law enforcement agencies investigating his activities, Verne sent fake bank and FedEx confirmations to convince investors that repayments had been made when they had not.
He also stole the identity of a former employee by forging their signature on a sales agreement to hide an unauthorized sale of the employee’s stock shares. The proceeds from this sale were used for personal payments and to pay off another investor.
After being approached by FBI agents about the investigation into his conduct, Verne attempted to obstruct justice by threatening the former employee who had cooperated with law enforcement: "because the employee provided information to law enforcement."
The Federal Bureau of Investigation led the criminal investigation while Assistant United States Attorneys Paul Shapiro and Jerome Maiatico prosecuted the case. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Philadelphia Regional Office is pursuing related civil securities fraud charges against Verne; those proceedings are ongoing.
