Lexington County Businessmen Kenneth J. Brown, Jr. and Nicholas R. Shepard Plead Guilty in $600,000 Scam
LEXINGTON — Two men from Lexington have pleaded guilty to scamming at least five individuals across five states, defrauding them of over half a million dollars through a combination of email and romance schemes.
Beginning in December 2021, Kenneth J. Brown, Jr. and Nicholas R. Shepard conned victims from Colorado to Florida, extracting thousands of dollars from each individual. They employed two main tactics: an email scam that misled victims about the destination of their transferred funds, and a romance scam targeting people seeking online partners.
On September 24, the duo pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud, as reported by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Both men face a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison, along with potential fines of up to $250,000. They have not yet been formally sentenced.
Brown and Shepard operated Golden Eagle Precious Metals Exchange, a gold-selling business located near Walmart on Dutch Fork Road in Irmo. A portion of the funds they collected from their scams was mailed directly to this business, which they then converted into cryptocurrency.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, over $10 billion was lost to fraud last year, marking a 14% increase from 2022. Imposter scams ranked as the second highest in terms of financial losses reported, the FTC stated.