A man tied to complaints about deceptive Jacksonville-area credit-repair businesses for more than 15 years has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for conspiring to defraud the government.
Kevin Edward Hargrave, 51, was also ordered to forfeit $1.5 million that court records said he admitted earning through fraud.
He was additionally told to pay just over $500,000 in restitution — $418,115 to the Internal Revenue Service and the rest to customers who told government agencies they paid for credit repair and got nothing.
Hargrave’s sentence from U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard was the maximum term allowed under a plea agreement he signed in 2022 to resolve charges involving a business his wife had incorporated called WSA Optimization Firm Inc., listed in state records at addresses on Arlington Expressway and in Ponte Vedra Beach.
“Fraud and corruption pose a fundamental threat to our national security and our way of life,” Michael C. Malsch, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Jacksonville Division, said in a statement after the sentencing last week. “… This sentencing should serve as a warning to others who might engage in these types of schemes.”