KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An Arizona man will serve more than 3 years in prison and be required to pay $550,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to defrauding two Johnson County, Kansas, residents.
John Myers, 66, was sentenced Tuesday in Johnson County District Court after reaching a plea agreement earlier with prosecutors on charges originally filed in 2019.
Prosecutors originally charged Myers with four counts of securities fraud, two counts of selling a security not registered in Kansas and one count of working with an unregistered agent in connection to a series of crimes in 2014.
Under amended charges filed as part of the January 2023 plea agreement, Myers pleaded guilty to two counts of securities fraud and one count of working with an unregistered agent. Prosecutors agreed to drop the two remaining securities fraud charges and the two counts of selling an unregistered security.
The plea agreement calls on Myers to pay one of the victims of the securities fraud, identified in court records as an elderly person, $200,000. Myers is also required to pay $350,000 to the second victim of securities fraud.
Myers was required to immediately pay the first $100,000 of the restitution upon Tuesday’s sentencing.
“Securities fraud is deterred when those willing to commit fraudulent behavior are publicly brought to justice,” Kansas Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt said in a release Wednesday. “The department will continue to be an advocate for Kansans by aggressively pursuing securities fraud in Kansas.”
Two other defendants in the scheme, Daniel Madasz and Kenneth Marg, were previously sentenced in the case.
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