Johnston Jeweler Sentenced: US Attorney

JOHNSTON, RI – A Rhode Island jeweler who sold merchandise online will serve four years in federal prison for cheating his business associates. According to the U.S. Attorney's office, Gerald Kent, 52, of Groton, Conn., owned Kent Jewelry, which used to be in Johnston. He made up phony invoices and used them to defraud a debtor finance company that bought his account receivables at a discount. The loss came to more than $3.6 million dollars.

In addition to the prison time, Kent will also do three years' supervised probation and repay the money, some $3,609,228.13.

Kent pleaded guilty on Dec. 20 to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

"At the time of his guilty plea," the U.S. Attorney's office said, "Kent admitted to the Court that he submitted fraudulent invoices to a factoring (debtor finance) company based in Chicago, Ill., mostly from Groupon and Zulily, which resulted in payments to him of nearly $5 million dollars. Kent admitted that he created hundreds of fraudulent invoices which were submitted to the factoring company for which he received payment; created and used a fraudulent clone of Groupon, Inc.’s website; enlisted coconspirators to pose as Groupon employees; and opened bank accounts in the names of Groupon and Zulily, Inc., in order to deceive the debtor finance company into believing it was receiving payments from these companies."

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