Ex-Georgia college basketball player from Cobb pleads guilty to $400K fraud scheme

Kevin Perry

Credit: College of Coastal Georgia / Bartow County Sheriff's Office

Credit: College of Coastal Georgia / Bartow County Sheriff's Office

Kevin Perry

A 22-year-old Cartersville man, who played basketball at Allatoona High School in Cobb County and the College of Coastal Georgia, pleaded guilty Friday to defrauding investors out of about $400,000, authorities said.

Kevin Perry pleaded guilty to scamming investors through his company, Lucrative Pips, when he was a teenager, U.S. Attorney BJay Pak said in a news release. He founded the company in 2016, which is when he joined the College of Coastal Georgia basketball team as a freshman.

His freshman biography page says his career goal was to "become a forex (foreign currency exchange) trader," but those aspirations instead netted him a felony conviction.

The Commodity Future Trading Commission (CFTC) alleged that he defrauded 30 investors out of at least $400,000. In addition, Lucrative Pips had never been properly registered with the CFTC.

In a complaint filed to Pak's office, the CFTC said Perry made "false and misleading claims" to potential and existing investors, promising them that their accounts would grow in value from 200% to 350% in less than 60 days. He also fully guaranteed they wouldn't lose their investments.

However, that didn’t happen.

Perry used the investors’ money to pay off other investors, while keeping the rest, the complaint said. The scheme didn’t end after the CFTC filed its complaint, with Perry continuing to try to hustle investors.

An undercover FBI agent posed as a potential investor and heard Perry’s spiel, which included him being told that an investment of $10,000 would return a profit of $19,000 to $25,000 per month, according to the complaint.

In response to a subpoena, Perry wrote that his company lost more than $75,000 in both August and September, despite his touts to potential clients of its success, the complaint said.

“Despite repeated requests, most pool participants (investors) have not received any of their funds back from (Perry),” the complaint said.

His sentencing has not been scheduled.

Bartow County online jail records show that he was arrested in December 2017 on unrelated firearm possession and drug-related charges. He was released the next day on a $10,000 bond.

Records show he was sentenced at the end of January, and AJC.com has reached out to the Bartow County Clerk of Superior Court for more detail on that sentencing.

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