A federal jury convicted a Scottsdale man on one count of wire fraud related to his claims to a financial backer that he would invest their $100,000 in the cannabis industry. Instead, Christopher E. Galvin spent the money on "legal bills, payroll, and himself, including cleaning, utility, air condition repair, and credit card bills," according to a pre-trial memorandum filed by federal prosecutors working the case.
The federal jury unanimously found Galvin, 58, guilty of the count on March 13 after a three-day trial overseen by U.S. District Judge Susan Brnovich. Just before the trial, prosecutors dropped four counts of transactional money laundering.
In 2019, Galvin founded a company called Hypur Ventures II, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona. He then convinced the woman in the case to wire him $100,000 for investment in cannabis industry funds. After Galvin spent the money on other things, he never repaid the investor, though he repeatedly promised the victim he would, prosecutors said.
Galvin repeatedly told the woman he could not tell her how her investment was performing, evidence of "his intent to defraud and cheat her out of her money to use it how he wished," the prosecutors' memo reads.
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