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Prosecutors detail Warren man’s role in Ponzi scheme
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
A sentencing memorandum written to the judge who will sentence Warren native Keelan Harris on Dec. 11 for his role in a Warren-based Ponzi scheme says Harris was responsible for the banking part of the enterprise, was aware that criminal activities were happening and participated in them.
Harris, 38, lived in Warren while assisting his brother, Kevin Harris, with the operation of companies called Complete Developments LLC and Investments International Inc. out of the former electrical workers union hall on Parkman Road Northwest from 2006 to 2008.
His sentencing will take place at 11 a.m. Dec. 11 in Cleveland federal court.
Authorities said CDL and I-3 offered investors foreign-exchange and currency-trading programs paying interest of 7 percent to 12 percent per month. Investors, mostly from Toronto, Canada, were promised that 80 percent of their principal would be secure and would be returned at the end of their program — in 3 to 12 months.
But the scheme collapsed in 2008, when the two companies ran out of money to pay “profit” checks. In reality, the companies invested less than $1 million in foreign-currency exchange and paid investors primarily with money from later investors in a classic Ponzi scheme, investigators said.
Kevin Harris was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2012 for serving as president of Complete Developments. Another associate, Karen Starr of Canada, was indicted but has not been located.
The sentencing memorandum from prosecutors for Keelan Harris says his role in the enterprise was to wire funds to investors and to operate the office on a day-to-day basis, along with others.
Keelan Harris and others also started I-3, which purportedly would buy investments with high-return yields, such as commercial real estate, startup companies, inventions and foreign currency, the memorandum says.
Keelan Harris and Starr incorporated I-3; Keelan Harris was CEO of I-3; and Keelan Harris was on the emails in which I-3 was developed, the memorandum says.
“As the person responsible for banking activities of both companies, [Keelan Harris] knew that CDL and I-3 were fraudulently obtaining investors’ money,” the filing says. “[He] knew that investor funds were not being placed in corporate foreign-exchange trading accounts as investors were promised.”