LAS VEGAS, Nev. (KOLO) – The President and CEO of a Las Vegas based company has been sentenced to 51 months in prison for stealing millions in victim investor funds.
55-year-old Mykalai Kontilai of Las Vegas must also pay $6.1 million in restitution.
According to court documents, Kontilai facilitated an investment fraud scheme involving his company, Collector’s Coffee Inc, a company headquartered in Las Vegas.
From 2012 to 2018, Kontilai made or caused to be made numerous materially false and misleading representations to induce victims to invest in his company, which he claimed was on the verge of launching an online auction house for third-party owned collectibles.
The DOJ says Kontilai raised around $23 million from the company’s investors. They also say that, instead of using the funds as promised, he stole around $6.1 million for his own use, including for the purchase of luxury goods, apartments and cars.
The SEC began an investigation into Kontilai in or around 2017 for misappropriating investor funds. The DOJ says Kontilai obstructed the investigation by forging documents he caused to be transmitted to the SEC and lied under oath.
Kontilai was with charged tax crimes, falsifying evidence, and leading a fraud scheme in June 2020, and in a separate case in Colorado in March 2020. While under investigation, Kontilai fled to Russia and was arrested by Interpol in Germany in 2023 before being extradited back to the U.S.
Kontilai pled guilty to one count of wire fraud on Nov. 21. As part of his plea deal, the government has agreed to drop the Colorado case.
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