Ann Arbor resident Brian Mitchell received a 33-month federal prison sentence Wednesday for scamming 128 individuals and organizations out of $2.7 million. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud in June following an FBI investigation.
The scheme involved commodities futures contracts, or speculative trading on the price of goods like sugar, corn, oil and precious metals. Mitchell operated under various unregistered investment entities, including Young Pros Investment Group and My Nest Egg, luring investors by promising large returns and guaranteeing their money was protected from losses. Mitchell later told investors their money was no longer guaranteed after falsely claiming the Commodity Futures Trading Commission seized financial assets.
Mitchell previously violated the Commodity Exchange Act in 2018, receiving a three-year ban from commodity futures trading. However, he continued to trade investment funds in commodity futures to carry out his scheme…