A New Hampshire man was sentenced to over four years in federal prison for persuading people to give him thousands of dollars for lobster shipments and business projects that never came through.
John Foster, 56, of Portsmouth, had pleaded guilty to wire fraud in January. He was sentenced Thursday.
Court documents said Foster owned multiple corporations from 2014 to 2018 and defrauded victims to obtain money for his projects used for his personal benefit.
The documents said Foster owned J.O. Foods, which facilitated the purchase and shipment of food to foreign countries. He agreed to send several thousand pounds of lobster to Vietnam.
A customer agreed to pay J.O.Foods $145,500, and Foster falsely assured the company that the lobster was being shipped.
Foster also owned JM Application, Design and Technologies, LLC, which purportedly developed and sold mobile computer applications.
Court documents said Foster used false representations to persuade seven people to invest $250,000 in the business and falsely claimed that the money was being used to further business development.
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Others sent money for similar false app projects.
