FRESNO - Royce Newcomb, 62, of Fresno, was sentenced today to five years and 10 months in prison for wire fraud and money laundering charges in a long-running fraud scheme where he stole $4.2 million from investors, lenders, and the federal government, Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith announced.
“Fraud schemes like this one are devastating to the victims, and prosecuting the perpetrators is one of our highest priorities,” Acting U.S. Attorney Beckwith said. “Our office will continue to work closely with the FBI to root out fraudsters who steal from private victims and from the federal government.”
“Royce Newcomb’s greed and disregard for the law while on supervised release adds salt to his victims’ financial wounds and serves as a cautionary tale for would-be investors,” said Special Agent in Charge Sid Patel of the FBI Sacramento Field Office. “He lured his victims into the scheme with slick marketing and false promises to ensure investors trusted him and would be unlikely to question his claims. The FBI encourages all investors to research individuals and companies before making a financial commitment. We also encourage anyone who feels they may have invested in a fraud scheme to report their concerns promptly.”
According to court documents, from 2017 through 2022, Newcomb owned Strategic Innovations. This technology startup company purported to develop smart home and business products designed to prevent package theft, protect packages from weather damage, and facilitate easier access for emergency responders and delivery services to locate homes and businesses. Newcomb developed prototypes of his products and received local and national media attention for them. For example, Time Magazine included his eLiT Address Box & Security System, which used mobile networks to pinpoint home and business locations, on its Best Inventions of 2021 list.
Newcomb made several false representations to his investors, deceiving and cheating them out of their money. The false representations included that he had been awarded a grant by the National Science Foundation and that he would use the investors’ money to further develop and bring his products to market. That was not true. Instead, Newcomb used the money to pay for gambling, a Mercedes, a Jaguar, and a mansion. He also used the money to pay refunds to other investors who wanted out and to fund new, unrelated projects without the investors’ authorization.
During this period, Newcomb also received a fraudulent COVID-19 loan for more than $70,000 from the Small Business Administration and fraudulent loans for more than $190,000 from private lenders. He lied about Strategic Innovations having hundreds of thousands, if not millions, in revenue to secure these loans.
Newcomb was previously convicted federally in 2011 for running a real estate fraud scheme in Sacramento. He was sentenced to more than five years in prison for that offense, and he was on federal supervised release for that offense when he committed the offenses charged in this case.
This effort is part of a California COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Strike Force operation, one of five interagency COVID-19 fraud strike force teams established by the U.S. Department of Justice. The California Strike Force combines law enforcement and prosecutorial resources in the Eastern and Central Districts of California, focusing on large-scale, multistate pandemic relief fraud perpetrated by criminal organizations and transnational actors. The strike forces use prosecutor-led and data analyst-driven teams to identify and bring to justice those who stole pandemic relief funds.