Elk Grove Village CEO Gets 9 Years For Defrauding Investors Of $9M
CHICAGO -- The founder and CEO of a northwest suburban company was sentenced Wednesday to nine years in federal prison for defrauding investors out of more than $9 million toward bogus anti-terrorism technology.
Gregory Webb, 71, was convicted last year of nine counts of mail and wire fraud for bilking more than 200 investors, including Chicago firefighters and other first responders, through Elk Grove Village-based InfrAegis Inc., according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Webb portrayed InfrAegis as a booming science venture on the verge of signing billion-dollar government contracts, including with Chicago, for kiosks that could recognize people on terrorism watch lists and detect biological, chemical and radiological threats on city streets and in food and water supplies, federal prosecutors said.
In reality, none of the company's products had been fully developed or tested, let alone been signed to contracts.
Between 2007 and 2012, more than $500,000 of the investments went straight into the pockets of Webb and his spouse, prosecutors said. He also racked up over $800,000 on corporate credit cards at restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations, tobacco stores, a movie theater, a sporting goods store and on an Apple iTunes account.
The investors were left empty-handed.
Webb, who lived in Dallas when he was indicted in February 2014, previously lived in Arlington Heights. His company went under.
U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Kendall handed down the 108-month sentence Wednesday in Chicago.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2017. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)