Nigerian Oil Scam: American man sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for defrauding investors

A Las Vegas man who served in the U.S. Marine Corps was on Tuesday, July 19 sentenced to 25 years in federal prison Tuesday for defrauding investors and the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department in a large-scale multimillion dollar Nigerian oil investment scheme, the Justice Department announced.

Anton Paul Drago, 65, formerly known as Evan Fogarty also was ordered to pay $2.3 million in restitution and serve five years of supervised release after prison. Drago was convicted by a jury in March of 10 felony counts — including wire fraud, submitting false government claims, theft of government funds, lying to federal agents and failing to file a federal tax return.

"Today’s sentence reflects the serious nature of Mr. Drago’s crimes and the substantial harm he inflicted on his investors and the U.S. government," said Caroline D. Ciraolo, an assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s tax division in Washington, D.C.

"When confronted with his extensive fraudulent conduct by federal agents, rather than come clean, Mr. Drago chose to double down on his lies and continue the scheme that funded his extravagant lifestyle."

The evidence presented at trial showed that Drago orchestrated a large-scale Nigerian oil investment fraud scheme from 2004 through 2012. He told investors that the money they invested would be used for legal fees and business expenses to fund the production, refinement and shipping of crude oil from Nigeria to the Bahamas and that the money would fund the purchase of an oil refinery in the Bahamas.

Drago lied to investors about his background and falsely claimed that he was an engineer and expert in the oil industry with over 30 years of experience working worldwide. He also falsely told investors that he was the grandson of the Shell Oil founder and heir to a $500 million trust that he had already spent on the Nigerian oil investment deal.

Investors gave Drago and his co-conspirator, Joseph Rizzuti, more than $2 million that they had used on personal expenses such as rent, groceries, membership at the Tournament Players Club Summerlin golf club, car maintenance, jewelry and travel and luxury purchases at Louis Vuitton among other stores. Drago also failed to file his 2007 federal income tax return in a timely manner, according to the release.

Drago attempted to negotiate a fictitious financial instrument purporting to be an International Bill of Exchange worth $10 million at a Wells Fargo branch in Las Vegas.

Drago also lied to federal agents of the Internal Revenue Service who were investigating him and told them that all of the investor money went to Nigeria.

At the same time Drago was perpetrating the oil scheme, he falsely claimed individual unemployability compensation benefits from the Veterans Affairs.

Drago and a co-defendant promised investors a short-term turnaround with a return of up to 400 percent, according to federal prosecutors. But instead of investing the more than $2 million in the oil deal, the two defendants used the money for personal expenses.

The case was investigated by IRS-Criminal Investigation and the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

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