A federal judge in Detroit has sentenced a former FBI agent convicted of fraud to 71 months in prison, Eastern District U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon said.
The judge on Oct. 15 also ordered Jeffrey Royer to pay $575,999.58 in restitution to his victims and serve three years of supervised release after his prison sentence, according to Gorgon.
Royer’s attorney, Rhonda Brazile, was not immediately available for comment.
However, in a sentencing memo she submitted to the court on her client’s behalf, Brazile said Royer admits that he lied to people who trusted him and took their money. She said both he and his wife even lost money of their own.
“Mr. Royer graduated as his high school salutatorian, earned a business degree cum laude and a master’s degree, and served as an officer in the United States Marine Corps, receiving an honorable discharge,” the attorney wrote in the memo. “He does not cite these advantages as excuses; the government is right that he squandered them. He cites them because they show what he can still do: work, repay, and give back.”
Authorities alleged Royer defrauded multiple investors by lying about how he would use their money and fabricating documents about their investments’ performance when he was a special agent with the FBI. He worked for the agency from 1996 until 2001.
Investigators said he used part of the money for personal expenses and told investors their funds were protected from losses.
A federal jury indicted the defendant in October 2024, according to court records.
In June, Royer pleaded guilty to wire fraud. The crime is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Officials said the defendant’s conviction is his second. In 2012, he was released from federal prison after serving five years for racketeering conspiracy, securities fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, obstruction of justice, and witness tampering.
He was convicted of using his position as an FBI agent to steal confidential criminal law enforcement information about companies under investigation, authorities said.
Royer passed the information along to a trader in exchange for the promise of cash and future. The trader used the information to establish short positions in the stocks of those companies, according to investigators.
Reporting by Charles E. Ramirez, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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