Source: US FBI
CAMDEN, N.J. – A Nevada woman was sentenced to 120 months in prison for orchestrating a $7 million advance fee Ponzi scheme and obstructing the government’s investigation, U.S. Attorney Alina Habba announced.
Anna Kline, formerly Jordana Weber, 35, of Sparks, Nevada, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Christine P. O’Hearn in Camden federal court to two counts of an Indictment charging her with wire fraud. Judge O’Hearn imposed the sentence in Camden federal Court. Kline was also ordered to serve three years’ supervised release and pay $3,403,000 in restitution.
According to the Indictment and documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
The Fraud Scheme
Between April 2017 and July 2019, Kline owned and operated several shell companies that falsely purported to offer lending services to customers, typically small business owners seeking high value loans, often in excess of $100 million. As part of the scheme, Kline required the victim borrowers to pay up to 5% of a potential total loan amount as a “fee” prior to the loan being funded.
After the victim’s “fee” was paid, Kline purported to conduct due diligence on the loans. During this period, Kline frequently gave victims bogus explanations for why the funding of their loan was delayed. It was also common for the victims to be provided with falsified or fraudulent documents, including bank statements that purported to show that the shell companies had sufficient money to fund the loan.
Throughout the scheme, Kline and her significant other, Jason Torres, used the “fees” paid by the victims for their daily living expenses, as well as for numerous lavish purchases, which included several luxury vehicles, high priced artwork, and vacations. The “fees” were also used to pay back previous victims of the fraud, in the manner of a traditional Ponzi scheme.
At least six victims transferred a total of approximately $7 million being transferred to bank accounts controlled by the Kline as a result of the scheme.
Kline’s Obstruction
Kline was arrested on charges related to the fraudulent advance fee scheme in July 2019. While released on bail on those charges, Kline, through her then-attorney, Attorney-1, provided the Government with a .pdf document that purported to be a portion of a Cellebrite report showing iMessages between Kline and Torres that appeared to show Torres making threats toward Kline and insinuating that Torres was primarily responsible for the fraudulent advance fee scheme.
A forensic review of the .pdf document Kline provided to the Government revealed that it had been falsified. Further investigation revealed that Kline presented the fake Cellebrite report to a Family Court in California as part of a custody dispute between Kline and Torres. During that hearing, Kline represented that the report had been generated by a forensic examiner named “Drew Andrews.” Investigation revealed that “Andrews” did not exist but was actually an alter-ego of Kline’s that Kline used to deceive the California Family Court, Attorney-1, and a forensic expert into believing that the fraudulent Cellebrite Report was legitimate.
In addition to the fraudulent Cellebrite report, Kline also provided the Government a computer that she claimed contained an iTunes backup that included the alleged text messages from Torres. A forensic review of the computer revealed that data on the computer, including the iTunes backup, had been manipulated. Specifically, certain time stamps on the computer had been changed to make it appear as if the iTunes backup and other files stored on the computer were created in April 2020, when the fictional “Andrews” purportedly ran the fraudulent Cellebrite Report.
U.S. Attorney Habba credited special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Terence G. Reilly, with the investigation leading to the sentencing.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Kogan of the U.S. Attorney’s Cybercrime Unit in Newark.
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Defense counsel:
Michael Huff, Esq., Philadelphia, PA