Arizona woman sentenced to nearly 4 years in prison for real estate scheme

PHOENIX — An Arizona woman was sentenced last week to nearly four years in prison for wire fraud and money laundering as part of a real estate scheme, authorities said.

Sarah Nicole Kelley, 41, of Coolidge, Arizona will spend 46 months behind bars and pay $190,774.64 in restitution after being found guilty of 24 counts of wire fraud and eight counts of money laundering by a federal jury in October 2021, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona said in a press release on Monday.

Kelley, a former real estate agent, defrauded a family friend out of $185,000 by convincing them to invest in a real estate project and send additional money for a short-term loan, authorities said.

She then used the money to pay off her own debts and strung the family friend along for months with lies about how the money was spent and when they would get it back.

The court also discovered after sentencing Kelley that she defrauded another family friend out of $647,000 using similar tactics, authorities said.

Kelley also provided false testimony under oath when seeking to overturn the jury’s guilty verdict, authorities said.

Investigation of the case was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation.

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