Portsmouth man gets 51 months for multiple fraud schemes totaling $500G

CONCORD - A Portsmouth man was sentenced on Thursday to 51 months in federal prison for wire fraud, the state's U.S. Attorney's Office announced today.

According to court documents and statements made in court, from 2014 to sometime in May of 2018, John Foster, 56, owned multiple limited liability corporations (LLCs) which he used in his schemes. In each of the schemes, Foster defrauded victims to obtain money that he claimed would be used for business projects, but actually used the money for his own personal benefit.

In 2018, Foster owned J.O. Foods, a company that facilitated the purchase and shipment of food to foreign countries. He agreed to send several thousand pounds of lobster to Vietnam. A customer agreed to pay J.O Foods a total of $145,500 for the delivery of the lobster. Foster falsely assured the company that the lobster was being shipped and induced the customer to send him over $100,000.

In 2014, Foster owned JM Application, Design and Technologies, LLC, which purportedly developed and sold mobile computer applications. Foster used false representations to persuade seven individuals to invest $250,000 in the business and falsely claimed that the money was being used to further business development when Foster actually used the money for his personal benefit.

In 2015, Foster promised to investors that he would develop an app called "Rocket Dog" to assist a business. Foster convinced an individual to invest over $156,000 to develop the app. During the next several months, Foster provided misleading information and material about the development of the Rocket Dog app and used most of the money for personal expenses.

In 2015, Foster also offered to create an app for another business and falsely claimed to have secured a patent for the app. He used false representations to persuade individuals to provide over $120,000 that he falsely claimed would be used to develop the app. Foster actually used most of the money for his personal benefit.

Foster previously pleaded guilty on January 8, 2020.