Former Rahway, New Jersey Man Sentenced for Stealing $35,000 in Online Fraud and Check Kiting Scheme

July 13, 2007 -- TRENTON - New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram and Criminal Justice Director Gregory A. Paw announced that a former Rahway man, now serving a state prison term, has been ordered to serve additional prison time for stealing more than $35,000 by defrauding investors over the Internet and implementing a check kiting scheme.

John G. Messina, 41, was sentenced today to three years in state prison by Superior Court Judge Joseph P. Donohue in Union County. Messina was sentenced in March 2006 to a three-year prison term for an unrelated fraud conviction. The new three-year sentence will run from April 9, when he entered a guilty plea, so part will run concurrently with the remaining portion of his prior sentence and part will be added to the end of the prior sentence. He also was ordered to pay $35,500 in restitution to his victims. Messina pleaded guilty to two counts of theft by deception.

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Messina admitted he advertised online at vFinance.com – a site where entrepreneurs can link up with potential sources of investment capital – claiming he could obtain investors and investment capital for businesses. Messina admitted that between October and November 2004, he received $9,000 from one victim by falsely claiming he could secure more than $2 million from investors for the victim’s online real estate business. The state investigation further determined that Messina fraudulently represented to the victim that he would get him a $65,000 loan.

Messina also admitted that between November and December 2004, he fraudulently accepted $5,900 from another victim. He told the victim he had raised $350,000 that was in an account ready to be disbursed. Messina also provided the victim with a fraudulent “letter of intent” regarding the purported funds to use as collateral with a bank. Messina never obtained investors or raised money for the victim, who was seeking financing for an online business to sell software to veterinarians, fish farmers, public aquariums and universities.

Messina was ordered to pay $20,600 in restitution to Bank of America for kiting checks. Messina deposited $20,600 in worthless checks from Ameritrade into his mother’s Bank of America bank account, withdrawing the check amounts before the checks bounced.

Deputy Attorney General Kenneth Sharpe of the Division’s Computer Analysis and Technology Unit represented the Division of Criminal Justice at sentencing.

Source: New Jersey Attorney General