Spokane – Joseph H. Harrington, United States Attorney for
the Eastern District of Washington, announced that Derrick John Fincher, age
48, of Spokane, Washington, was sentenced today after being found guilty by a
jury of Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud. Chief United States District Judge
Thomas O. Rice sentenced Fincher to a 135-month term of imprisonment, to be
followed by a 3-year term of court supervision after he is released from
federal prison. Fincher was also ordered to pay $2,015,000 in restitution to
his victims.
According to information disclosed during court proceedings,
Fincher and his conspirators, Vassily Anthony “Tony” Thompson and John Patrick
Nixon, orchestrated an advance fee fraud scheme that duped their victims into
paying $160,000 to $1 million as “show money” or “insurance fees” to
purportedly obtain loans of millions of dollars from the Export-Import Bank and
other lending institutions. The victims sought these loans for legitimate
business ventures the victims were pursing including: a celebrity golf
tournament in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, a movie studio in Montana, and a housing
development near Charlotte, North Carolina. In reality, Fincher and his
co-conspirators used the victim’s money to pay their own personal living expenses.
The victims were defrauded out of $2,015,000.
Joseph H. Harrington said, “Posing as legitimate
businessmen, the defendant and his conspirators used false promises to extract
significant fees from their victims, but they provided nothing in return. Their
promises of loans were empty as they were nothing more than a fraudulent scheme
designed to line their pockets. The sentence imposed sends a strong message to
others who may engage in similar conduct. I commend the FBI and the Special
Agents for their tenacity and dedication in uncovering and investigating this
advance fee scheme. The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern
District of Washington will continue to prosecute aggressively white collar
crime occurring in this District.”
The Court previously sentenced Fincher’s conspirators,
Thompson and Nixon, to 9-year and 2-year terms of imprisonment, respectively,
followed by a 3-year term of court supervision, and ordered them to pay
$2,015,000 in restitution.
This case was investigated by the Spokane Resident Office of
the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This case was prosecuted by Scott Jones
and Joseph Derrig, Assistant United States Attorneys for the Eastern District
of Washington.
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