Fayetteville man, 3 others sentenced in $18M fraud scheme

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.

Fayetteville man, 3 others sentenced in $18M fraud scheme

4 Convicted in $18M Investment Fraud Scheme

by Arkansas Business Staff

A federal jury in Arkansas has convicted four men for their roles in an $18 million investment fraud and money laundering scheme.

The Brittingham Group, founded by Fayetteville investment banker John Nock, 55, promised returns as high as 300% within 20 to 30 days, according to authorities. But in reality, the group could not and did not produce those returns on their investment offerings.

https://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article/145853/4-convicted-in-18m-investment-fraud-scheme

Two Arkansas Men Found Guilty in Connection with Proposed Elm Springs Wind Farm

by Talk Business & Politics staff (staff2@talkbusiness.net)

A federal jury in Fayetteville has found two Arkansas men guilty of fraud and money laundering in connection with the development of a wind turbine that was never operational and a proposed wind farm project in Washington County that was never constructed. The convictions were detailed in a press release Friday (Sept. 3) from the U.S. Department of Justice.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Jody Davis of Searcy and Phillip Ridings North Little Rock formed a limited liability company in Texas in 2014 called Dragonfly Industries International LLC. They also created an Arkansas LLC called Arkansas Wind Power (AWP). They told investors they planned to develop a revolutionary wind turbine design on a 311-acre wind farm proposed for construction in Elm Springs.

https://talkbusiness.net/2021/09/two-arkansas-men-found-guilty-in-connection-with-proposed-elm-springs-wind-farm/