Ex-FBI agent sentenced in Detroit for defrauding investors in forex scheme

A former FBI agent was sentenced to almost 6 years in federal prison after having pleaded guilty to defrauding multiple investors, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan said. 

Jeffrey Royer was an FBI agent from 1996 to 2001 and defrauded investors by falsely representing how their funds would be used and fabricating documents about their investments' performance, according to the district attorney's office.

Royer told investors that their funds would be used for foreign currency (forex) and commodity futures trading, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Royer instead diverted some of the collected funds to personal expenses, made false assurances to investors that their funds were protected from losses and fabricated earnings statements showing significant gains when investors were losing money, the U.S. Attorney's Office says.

Royer was ordered to pay restitution of $575,999.58 to his victims and to serve three years on supervised release after he completes his prison term.

Royer had previously served a federal sentence that ended in 2012 for racketeering conspiracy, securities fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, obstruction of justice and witness tampering. 

"Once a respected member of law enforcement, Jeffrey Royer now stands as a repeat fraudster who abandoned every principle that badge was supposed to represent," said United States Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr. "Fraudsters like Royer abuse the trust others place in them and the positions they held. Abuse of the public trust will not be tolerated."   

"By choosing fraud over the oath he once took, Royer betrayed both the public and the law enforcement community," said Jennifer Runyan, special agent in charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office. "The sentence imposed today sends a clear message that misconduct, particularly by those who once held positions of trust, will be met with decisive action."   

The FBI investigated the case.