Suave NYC con slapped with sentence for using wealthy alter ego to swindle investors out of $700k

A debonair Manhattan con man who swindled investors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars using a “wealthy” alter ego will serve between three and nine years behind bars for his crimes.Ian Mitchell, 37, posed as the investment banker scion of a well-heeled Jamaican family to pull off the scheme — which eventually netted him about $700,000 from friends and associates between 2017 and 2018, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.On Wednesday, Mitchell — who pleaded guilty in New York State Supreme Court last month to grand larceny and bail jumping — was slapped with a sentence that will put him in state prison for at least three years.“Ian Mitchell defrauded his friends and associates out of approximately $700,000 by claiming to be from a wealthy, prominent family,” Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg said.

“Those who impersonate others to steal hard-earned money will be prosecuted.” At the heart of his money-grabbing plot was a fake identity, Ian Matalon, that Mitchell assumed while pretending to be a member of the prominent Matalon family of Jamaica.Mitchell told friends and associates that he was the independently wealthy manager of the family hedge fund — and from October 2017 to the following November, said he had access to unique investment opportunities of which they could be a part.

He convinced one person to invest more than $200,000 by telling them he could buy real estate and cannabis businesses through his family’s connections — and he used a similar scam to soak another victim for $300,000 by claiming he had access to pre-initial public offerings on WeWork and Dropbox, Bragg said.Mitchell used the same public offering story to convince a third investor to rake up $200,000 from several other victims on his behalf, the office said.

“He was good at what he did,” said Brett Steigh, a California restaurateur who gave Mitchell $44,000 to invest in January 2018.“He painted the picture well.What can I say? He got m...