KC man duped people out of $483K — used it for a BMW, Bermuda trip and ‘beauty expenses’

A Kansas City man was found guilty on Friday of an investment fraud scheme used to dupe people out of nearly $500,000.

Ryan Scott Luscombe, 45, used people’s funds — which he said was going to be used to produce investment returns through his trading business — to buy a 2010 BMW and a trip to Bermuda, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri.

He used the entirety of the investment funds given to him — $483,482 — for personal spending, according to evidence at his trial.

Luscombe was convicted in federal court of three counts of wire fraud, two counts of mail fraud and one count of money laundering.

In his efforts to dupe people out of money, Luscombe presented himself as a “wealthy individual and a successful day trader capable of producing tremendous returns on investments,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a release.

In addition to the BMW and trip to Bermuda, Luscombe spent more than $60,000 of the funds on restaurants and entertainment, more than $75,000 on retail and more than $20,000 on “nutrition, fitness and beauty expenses.”

He faces up to 20 years in federal prison without parole on each of the fraud counts and up to 10 years for money laundering.

This story was originally published February 16, 2018 at 6:14 PM with the headline "KC man duped people out of $483K — used it for a BMW, Bermuda trip and ‘beauty expenses’."