A set of handcuffs sit on a bedside table inside a Muncie, Ind., hotel on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018. (Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar)
CLEVELAND, Ohio (Tribune News Service) — A U.S. Navy veteran was sentenced to two years in prison for scamming fellow veterans and active-duty sailors out of some $300,000 in an investment fund scam.
Robert L. Murray, a retired chief petty officer, used investors’ money on gambling trips to casinos in Cleveland and elsewhere and lost investors’ money in the 2021 GameStop “meme stock” wave.
U.S. District Judge Manish Shah in Chicago ordered Murray on Wednesday to begin serving his sentence immediately and pay $112,000 in restitution.
Murray, 45, also faces a lawsuit filed in 2022 by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. That case has been put on pause while the criminal case played out.
Murray lived in North Canton and Chicago at the time of the scheme, but he later moved to Alaska, court records say.
Federal prosecutors and SEC attorneys accused Murray of violating the trust he built with fellow service members.
He set up an investment fund and solicited investors from Navy-specific groups on Facebook and Discord.
Murray set up an LLC called Deep Dive Strategies and took in $342,000 in investor money from 40 people all over the country and some serving overseas, according to prosecutors.
Almost immediately, he took that money and used it on personal expenses, instead of investing, prosecutors said. He also lost big on the GameStop stock.
In six months, he lost all the investors money, according to prosecutors.
Murray served in the military until 2018, when he retired.
He served in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he treated wounded soldiers and suffered at least one traumatic brain injury, defense attorney Holly Blaine wrote in court filings. He was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental illnesses.
The injuries he suffered during combat caused him to be on 100 percent disability.
“It is also abundantly clear from his arrest record that the brain injuries and mental health conditions he experiences contributed to not only this conviction but his prior arrests and convictions as well,” Blaine wrote.
Adam Ferrise covers federal courts at cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. You can find his work here.
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