A federal jury in Manhattan on Wednesday found a Kansas City, Mo., businessman guilty of fraud for running a $220 million payday lending scheme that charged illegally high interest rates and made loans to consumers who did not authorize them, Reuters reported. The U.S. Department of Justice said Richard Moseley was convicted on six counts including wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, after a 2½-week trial. Moseley, who had pleaded not guilty, faces up to 20 years in prison on the most serious charges at his scheduled April 27, 2018 sentencing. Prosecutors said that from 2004 to September 2014, Moseley's businesses made "predatory" loans to more than 620,000 Americans, often downplaying the financing costs and charging effective annual interest rates that could top 700 percent. The defendant spent some of the millions of dollars he made from the scheme on a Mexico vacation home, luxury cars and country club dues, prosecutors said.
