A bogus broker who pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud after embezzling over $640,000 from three clients and threatening to murder one of them has been sentenced to 63 months in prison.
Gregg Brie, 54, of White Plains, New York, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York last week, court documents show.
In addition to the more than five years in prison, Seiber ordered Brie to serve three years of supervised release and to pay $642,333.33 in restitution. This is the "amount of proceeds traceable to the offense charged" in count one that Brie pleaded guilty to, according to a court document.
Brie has no Financial Industry Regulatory Authority record and was not a registered representative at the time the fraud was committed, a period that stretched from October 2016 to September 2020. He claimed, though, that he was operating his own firm, Topper Management, out of his apartment.
In a Nov. 3 sentencing memorandum, Benjamin Gold, the attorney who represented Brie, requested the judge sentence his client to 48 months instead of the 51-63 months recommended by the applicable guidelines for the crime that Brie pleaded guilty to.
Forty-eight months "will provide ample general and specific deterrence," Gold argued, noting his client is 54 and, "if sentenced to 48 months, Mr. Brie will be close to 58 when he finishes his sentence." Therefore, "statistically speaking, Mr. Brie's age puts him at a low rate of reoffending," Gold said.
However, Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, responded that Brie was "previously convicted of fraud [and] now asks for a below-Guidelines sentence of 48 months." Williams added: "The Government recommends that the Court sentence the defendant within the applicable Guidelines range of 51 to 63 months."
Gold, a public defender, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday about the judge's decision to sentence Brie to the maximum 63 months.
A 'Literal' Threat
