Guilty Of $2M Wire Fraud Arlington CEO Sentenced In Federal Court

ALEXANDRIA, VA — An Arlington-based mergers and acquisitions firm executive, who admitted to defrauding a total of $2,002,750 from eight companies, was sentenced in federal court earlier this month.

Kiel Brendan Brandt, 34, the founder and owner of Epsilon Acquisition Services, was convicted of wire fraud in December and faced a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Instead, was sentenced on April 3 to 27 months in prison and three years of supervised release, according to court documents.

This is on top of the $1,984,426 in restitution he agreed to pay, as part of a plea deal he made in December. At that time, he’d repaid only $193,323 to the victims of his fraud scheme.

From at least February 2021 through December 2022, Brandt provided false information to companies and individuals about the status of their deals and his company’s finances.

He admitted to falsely claiming that Epsilon would refund fees if the deals didn’t close, according to court records. He also admitted lying about if or when those refunds would be issued.

“When Brandt failed to secure funding and deals did not close, Brandt falsely claimed that the deals were delayed because the lenders and/or partners needed additional due diligence materials, insurance records, or other documentation,” according to court records.

Also See: Guilty Plea By Arlington CEO For Defrauding $2M From 8 Companies

One of Brandt’s customers was a company in Argentina that had paid Epsilon about $275,000 in refundable payments and fees to identify a buyer to purchase the company, court records say. Brandt never repaid the fees, saying that the bank was experiencing processing issuew or funds were delayed because of a holiday.

“To make his supposed efforts appear legitimate, Brandt initiated a transfer from his bank and obtained a confirmation order, but he then canceled the transfer before any of the money was sent from his account. Brandt, nonetheless, sent the confirmation number to the company,” according to court documents.