Mint Hill Sentenced For Investment Fraud, Embezzlement From Church, And COVID-19 Relief Fraud

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Brian Shane Haigler, 43, of Mint Hill, N.C., was sentenced today to 33 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release for a fraud scheme that targeted individual investors, a church, and a federal COVID-19 relief program, announced Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.

"Haigler exploited friends, stole from his church, and defrauded a federal relief program meant to provide economic assistance during a national crisis," said U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson. "This rampant fraud must be stopped, and my office is committed to investigating and prosecuting those that take advantage of others."

According to court documents, in or around February 2019, Haigler began to recruit friends and acquaintances to invest money in what he represented were real estate transactions. Haigler promised his investors that their funds would be used to purchase or improve specific properties and that they would receive fixed returns by a certain date. Instead of investing the money as promised, Haigler used little, if any, of the investor funds for legitimate real estate purposes. A significant portion of the money was used for personal expenditures or to make payments to earlier investors. To cover up the fraud, when investors inquired about their investments or sought repayment, Haigler made numerous false statements to conceal the scheme.

Then, according to court records, in July 2019, Haigler embezzled funds from a church where he served as a Treasurer. Following the death of the church's pastor in early 2019, Haigler was the sole signatory on the church's bank accounts. From 2019 to 2021, Haigler wrote 53 checks and made three cash withdrawals from the church's bank account totaling over $389,000. In one instance, Haigler wrote a $160,000 check from the church account payable to himself and then used most of those funds to pay an investor.

After that, in April 2021, Haigler submitted an application through the U.S. Small Business Administration's (SBA) online portal for a $311,000 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) in the name of the church, without the church's knowledge and consent. The SBA approved the EIDL loan and after the funds were deposited into the church's account Haigler transferred $300,000 to his personal account. The loss associated with Haigler's embezzlement scheme is between $550,000 and $1.5 million.

On July 14, 2024, Haigler pleaded guilty to wire fraud. He will be ordered to report to the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility.

The case was investigated by the SBA and the U.S. Secret Service.

Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Frick of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Charlotte prosecuted the case.