Former Gladwyne Entrepreneur Who Bilked Investors Out of Millions of Dollars Sentenced to over Nine Years in Prison

PHILADELPHIA - United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that Josh S. Verne, 48, formerly of Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, now a resident of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was sentenced today to 111months in prison, 3 years supervised release, $1300 special assessment and forfeiture in the amount of $12,173,759 by United States District Judge John F. Murphy for a series of schemes through which the defendant defrauded dozens of investors, prospective investors, employees, and business partners out of millions of dollars.

The defendant was charged by indictment in August 2024 and, in March of last year,

pleaded guilty to nine counts of wire fraud, three counts of securities fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft.

As detailed in case filings and admitted to by the defendant, Verne carried out a series of schemes from at least in or about 2017 to 2020, through which he defrauded dozens of investors, prospective investors, employees, and business partners out of millions of dollars, forged documents, and obstructed justice by threatening, intimidating, and retaliating against others in connection with the federal criminal investigation.

Verne held himself out as a wealthy and successful businessman, entrepreneur, and investor, and he carried out his fraudulent activities through a series of limited liability companies, of which he was the chief executive and over which he maintained control.

Among other things, Verne falsely represented his prior business successes, falsely represented his personal net worth, falsely represented his own investments, and falsely represented the financial health of his companies and investments, in order to induce others to invest in or provide loans to him or his companies. For instance, he provided an investor with a forged Goldman Sachs statement that showed family investment holdings for Verne of more than $50 million, when, in fact, Verne did not have an investment account at Goldman Sachs in his own name or in his family's names, much less an account with a market value of more than $50 million.

Further, Verne misused business and investor funds to repay prior debts and to finance an affluent lifestyle he could not afford, such as personal expenses related to renovations to his showcase vacation property on the Jersey shore, travel on private jets, contributions to political candidates, personal charitable contributions, and country club payments.

In order to delay and prevent discovery by law enforcement of his own misconduct, Verne later sent bank and FedEx confirmations purporting to confirm delivery of funds to investors to whom he had promised repayment; the bank and FedEx confirmations were false and fraudulent.

At one point, Verne stole the identity of a former employee from his company, forging the employee's signature on a sales agreement to disguise an unauthorized sale of the employee's shares of stock. Verne obtained $150,000 from the unauthorized sale and used those funds to make payments to himself and to a prior investor.

Finally, after Verne met with FBI agents and learned details about the investigation, the defendant obstructed justice by contacting the former employee and threatening to divulge false, embarrassing information about him because the employee provided information to law enforcement.

This case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Paul Shapiro and Jerome Maiatico. The Securities and Exchange Commission's Philadelphia Regional Office investigated civil securities fraud charges against Verne, which are pending.