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| Marcus Meehan |
A Texas man has been sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to repay $200,000 restitution in a scam involving the sale of rare coins. Marcus Meehan, 40, of Buna, Texas, was alleged to have sold the coins to a Delaware investor at a significantly inflated price while working for a Port Arthur, Texas company named “American Eagle Reserve.”
“This defendant preyed on his victim’s trust,” Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden said. “His scam deprived this vulnerable victim out of necessary funds that he would have used for his own considerable healthcare needs.”
Meehan’s victim was a physically impaired senior citizen who was able to communicate only with computer assistance. The criminal investigation conducted by the Attorney General’s Fraud and Consumer Protection Division concluded that Meehan misrepresented the value of coins that he sold to the victim in 2008.
In fact, according to Meehan’s own admission, the coins were only worth 15% of what the investor was convinced to pay.
At sentencing, the prosecutor, Deputy Attorney General Richard Hubbard, said that Meehan stated in his confession that he had been taught how to lie, how to manipulate, and how to pray with clients over the telephone in order to gain their trust. The prosecutor also stated that Meehan had told the pre-sentence investigator that he would like to get back into the coin business.
Superior Court Judge Peggy L. Ableman sentenced Meehan to a three year prison term, followed by one year of intensive probation and then four years of probation. He was ordered to repay $200,000 in restitution to the victim. The court emphasized that at the time Meehan committed the crime, he knew the victim was a quadriplegic.
Meehan was extradited from Texas to Delaware in January, 2011 after he was detained on an arrest warrant issued by the Attorney General’s Office. He was indicted by the New Castle County Grand Jury in April, 2011 and he pled guilty to one count of Theft Over $100,000, a felony, on May 9, 2011.
