A 30-year-old Los Angeles, California, resident has pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a $12.5 million scam that victimized investors in the Southern District of Texas. In the first years of the COVID-19 pandemic, Robert Maxwell falsely represented to investors that he had procured a manufacturing contract with a Chinese company for personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks and gloves. He also purported to have a domestic agreement to sell the PPE. He used fabricated bank records, agreements and other documents to solicit millions in investments to aid in this purported venture. He then pocketed the investment funds, while the PPE never existed.
At the same time, Maxwell agreed to help produce an at-home aerosol product intended to kill coronavirus. While again taking in millions from investors, Maxwell claimed he was working with a manufacturing plant in Texas and an out-of-state distributor to produce and deliver the product to major retailers. Maxwell told victims that retailers were selling out of the product and ordering millions of additional units in a bid to obtain additional investor funds. However, the entire arrangement was a fraud. No one had even manufactured the product, retailers had never heard of it nor of Maxwell, and he had fabricated all the documents he showed to investors to bolster the scheme. Maxwell admitted to stealing more than $12.5 million from victims in the course of his fraudulent scheme.
