Start-up co-founder gets 2 years

The co-founder of an Atlanta start-up company will spend two years in federal prison for using $835,000 from investors for his personal gain.

Federal prosecutors said Kevin Patrick Loughery, who co-founded Geometrix in 2007, spent investors’ funds instead of holding them in escrow as he had promised.

He told investors in 2008 he would hold the funds until Geometrix completed issuing stock in the company, according to U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates.

“Instead, he used the money to support his lavish lifestyle,” Yates said in a statement Tuesday. Rather than directing funds to the escrow account for Geometrix, some of the funds went to another of Loughery’s businesses, KLM Investments. He eventually declared bankruptcy.

He pleaded guilty to fraud in March. As part of his sentence, Loughery must repay the money he took from investors.