Orange County California Man Sentenced to 15+ Years for Central Fraud

A man from Orange County, California, Brett Michael Bartlett, has been sentenced to over 15 years in prison for defrauding investors in Central Illinois out of a staggering $22.5 million. Bartlett, aged 37, from Fountain Valley, California, was given a 15-year and 8-month sentence on November 25, 2024, for charges including wire fraud, mail fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering. Additionally, he will have to serve a three-year supervised release period and repay the full amount of $22,502,092.66 to his victims.

During his guilty plea, Bartlett confessed that he used his companies, Dynasty Toys, and 7M E-group, based in California, to carry out a deceptive scheme. He deceived investors by making false promises and representations, ultimately tricking them out of their money. Bartlett’s scam involved purchasing items at liquidation sales and reselling them online, particularly through platforms like Amazon. His strategy involved luring Central Illinois investors in with the promise of high returns, first through 7M E-group with guarantees of 20% to 40% annual returns on resold inventory, and later through Dynasty Toys’ preferred stock shares, which Bartlett claimed would double in value.

Bartlett was successful in convincing investors to fork over money by inflating the success of his companies, lying about their assets, and withholding important information about the companies’ struggles. He also siphoned off investors’ funds for his personal gain, painting a much rosier picture of his companies’ financial health than they actually were. For instance, Bartlett falsely claimed that the shares held by investors were valued at $30 million and that Dynasty Toys had hundreds of millions of dollars in gold assets. He even went as far as to fabricate a story about another company looking to purchase Dynasty Toys for $120 million. Ultimately, more than 1,000 individuals, including 50 investors from Central Illinois, were deceived into investing over $22.5 million with Bartlett, 7M E-group, and Dynasty Toys.

In May 2020, Bartlett sent checks totaling millions of dollars to his Central Illinois investors, which later turned out to bounce. Despite this, he transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars to his personal bank account and treated his family members and employees to a luxury retreat at Big Bear Lake in California. These actions led to investors losing a staggering $22.5 million due to Bartlett’s fraudulent activities.

At the sentencing hearing, prosecutors presented compelling evidence of the severe financial hardships faced by the victims as a result of Bartlett’s fraudulent scheme.