A father and son from Manhattan were convicted Thursday of bilking 1,300 people who invested in their sham vending-machine business out of nearly $11 million, authorities said.
From 2005 to 2011, Kenneth Levin, 69, and his son Taylor, 34, used various “business opportunity companies” to promise customers huge returns on vending-machine investments, federal prosecutors said.
They said experienced locators would place the machines at profitable, predetermined sites.
In reality, these locators were inexperienced and even placed some machines in businesses that never consented to them.
Some of the investors lost most if not all of their money, prosecutors said.
A Manhattan jury convicted the Levins of mail and wire fraud and related charges following a nearly monthlong trial in federal court.
Prosecutors said the men placed ads in newspapers and sent prospective customers across the country fliers advertising their “business opportunity.”
Lawyers for the Levins didn’t return messages seeking comment.