A Maryland man is looking at up to 20 years in federal prison after he was convicted of taking $15 million from “investors” to buy airplanes and instead using it to buy yachts and jewelry and the lavish lifestyle to go with them in a $10,000-a-month rental in Tampa. A federal jury handed down the verdict last week, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. “Patrick Britton-Harr stole millions of dollars from his customers by lying to them about how he would use and protect their money,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva said. “He used his business as a front to fraudulently induce his clients to make down payments for services never provided. Meanwhile he bought yachts, expensive jewelry, and lined his own pockets. The prosecutors and agents who brought this case vindicated the victims. If you prey on, trick, and defraud people, you will be investigated and prosecuted.”
Britton-Harr attracted about 100 people to give him $150,000 each to buy airplanes for a charter service he called AeroVanti. Those “Top Gun” investors were supposed to get their money back and get discounts after the planes were in service. The type of planes were not released by the feds, but all the images on the AeroVanti website show Piaggio Avantis. Britton-Harr did buy one airplane but he didn’t use the investors’ money. He borrowed the funds “by withholding material information from the lender to obtain the loan.” All this happened in 2022 and 2023, but Britton-Harr was allegedly not finished. The same investigators have now indicted him for an alleged healthcare scam involving fraudulently billing Medicare for “expensive respiratory tests.” That goes to trial in October.
Anybody who would use $15 million to buy jewelry instead of airplanes deserves to go to prison.
Well parrrdonn me!
If someone decides to be an investor, then it’s up to that person to investigate what they are investing in. It’s always going to be “buyer beware!” I imagine there is more to this story, but since it’s in the court system, we will have to wait for the case to run its course. Would be interesting in how he was able to present the scam.