An Olathe man pleaded guilty Monday to stealing more than $8 million from a Turkish investor, U.S. Attorney Tom Beall said.
Nagy Shehata, 57, Olathe, Kan., pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kansas, to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
In his plea, he admitted the crime occurred while he was president of Premier Investment Group, a corporation registered in Missouri. During that time, Shehata formed a joint partnership with co-defendant Laura Lee Sorsby, a Texas resident who conducted business through a company called Can Am International.
The victim was a Turkish resident who was the founder of a hospital in Istanbul, Turkey. The defendants offered the victim the opportunity to invest in a project that started out as a plan to build a hospital in Syria and evolved into a plan to build a shopping mall in Iraq. Based on the defendants’ false statements, the victim transferred money to Shehata’s bank in New York. Shehata wired the money from New York to his bank accounts in Kansas.
The defendants did not use the money for the hospital or shopping mall projects. Instead, Shehata bought an $111,000 car and an $855,000 house.
Sentencing will be set for a later time. Shehata faces up to 20 years in federal prison and restitution of more than $8.2 million. Beall commended the FBI and Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Oakley for their work on the case.