HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge announced Friday that West Olive resident Joshua Louis Rupp, 37, faces sentencing after a plea agreement related to a felony charge of securities fraud.
Under the plea deal, Rupp has agreed to be ordered to pay full restitution to the victims of his crime. He faces up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced next year by the Honorable Hala Y. Jarbou, United States District Judge. No sentencing date has been set.
Court records indicate Rupp posed as a licensed broker or trader who worked at one of two different brokerage firms from 2015 to 2019, while recruiting investors. He told them his work was being supervised by people at the firms he named, including an uncle, but investigators found none of those people exist.
Rupp also told investors that the principal of their investments could not be lost for various reasons, including his choice of investments, trading strategy, and insurance. Rupp “fabricated documents as part of the scheme, including false account statements, a fraudulent securities license, and business documents bearing the logos of the companies for which he claimed to work,” according to Birge’s statement emailed to media.
He indicated some of the documents indicated Rupp had passed a securities trader qualification examination or that he was registered with the State of Michigan.
These claims, and others he made to induce and retain investments, were false, according to federal officials. Rupp got more than $2.7 million from at least 19 investors, misappropriating more than $500,000 of their money, losing most of the remaining funds trading securities, according to court records.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil complaint against Rupp on July 28, 2021, related to some of the conduct charged in the felony information.
“Securities trading is a risky business, and for good reason the professionals who do it are licensed and specially trained,” said Birge in his statement to media. “This defendant misrepresented his qualifications to trade on behalf of investors in order to obtain money, lied about the performance of their investments, and misappropriated significant portions of the investments for his own personal gain. He has taken the first step toward making amends by accepting responsibility for
this serious crime.”
Timothy Waters, special agent in charge of the FBI in Michigan, noted Rupp “fabricated nearly everything about himself as a broker—his license, experience, and business connections—to induce investors to trust him with their money. He then betrayed that trust by taking a portion of the money for his personal use and fabricating false account statements.”
He went on to say “financial crimes are not victimless,” praising Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office for helping provide “a measure of justice to the victims impacted by Mr. Rupp’s crimes.”
Investigators say they continue to look for Rupp’s victims and encourage anyone affected to come forward, by contacting the Victim and Witness Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office at (616) 808-2034.
Case updates will be online at justice.gov/usao-wdmi/victim-and-witness-assistance-program/vw-large-cases.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin M. Presant is prosecuting the case.
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