Greenwich man sentenced for swindling $1.5M from investors

GREENWICH — A Greenwich man was sentenced to three years in prison Tuesday for defrauding investors of nearly $1.5 million, according to federal prosecutors.

Prosecutors said that Samuel Klein, now 66, made false representations to four investors.

In 2018, Klein told one investor that their funds would be invested in “distressed debt” into one of his entities, Visual Group LLC, according to Leonard Boyle, the United States attorney for the District of Connecticut.

“Klein knew that all of the investment funds would not be used for the stated purposes,” Boyle's office added.

The investor wrote a $200,000 check for Visual Group LLC. Klein got the check transported from New York to Connecticut and deposited into a bank account in the name of the LLC. He then solicited and received about $50,000 more from this investor, according to Boyle's office.

Investigators also found that from July 2016 through at least June 2019 Klein defrauded three additional investors

of more than $1.2 million “by making false statements and misrepresentations,” Boyle's office said.

Klein then did not use these funds for his stated purposes. Instead, he used them “for personal and other expenditures,” Boyle's office added.

Klein was charged in December 2020 after a federal investigation. He pleaded guilty in August 2021 to interstate transportation of property taken by fraud and money laundering. He was out on bond until his sentencing Tuesday when he was remanded to custody, Boyle's office said.

After his three-year prison sentence, Klein will serve three years of supervised release. A federal judge in New Haven also ordered him to pay almost $1.5 million in restitution.