by Paul Gatling (pgatling@nwabj.com)
John Nock, a Fayetteville businessman who once owned the former Cosmopolitan Hotel in downtown Fayetteville, was one of four men sentenced last week in Fayetteville for participating in an eight-year investment fraud and money laundering scheme that defrauded over a dozen victims around the world out of more than $18 million.
According to a press release Monday (March 18) from the Department of Justice, Nock, 55, was sentenced on March 14 to 20 years and 10 months in prison; Brian Brittsan, 67, of Boise, Idaho, was sentenced on March 14 to 10 years in jail; Kevin Griffith, 68, of Orem, Utah, was sentenced on March 15 to 12 years and six months in prison; and Alexander Ituma, 57, of Lehi, Utah, was sentenced on March 15 to eight years and four months in jail.
Between 2013 and 2021, Nock, Brittsan, Griffith and Ituma colluded in an investment fraud operation under The Brittingham Group, an Arkansas-based company. The scheme falsely claimed access to exclusive investment opportunities, including deals involving the monetization of foreign bank guarantees.
