Chandler man sentenced to 33 months in prison for defrauding investors

TUCSON  — On Dec. 12, Jeffrey D. McHatton, 68, of Chandler, was sentenced  by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Márquez to 33 months in prison for 10 counts of securities fraud.

McHatton was previously found guilty by a jury. One of McHatton’s co-defendants at trial, Robert Sproat, 60, of Mesa, Arizona, was previously sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Prior to that trial, a third co-defendant, Robert Moss, 56, of Gilbert, Arizona, pleaded guilty to his involvement in the scheme and was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Evidence presented at trial demonstrated that, between 2012 and 2014, McHatton, Sproat, and Moss used a religious charitable organization as a front to entice victims to invest more than $1.2 million. Several of the victims targeted in the scheme were elderly.

McHatton, Sproat, and Moss fraudulently promoted investments in the recovery of "low alpha lead" from Central America, gold from the Philippines, and diamonds from Africa, though none of the items were ever produced.

McHatton, Sproat, and Moss used large portions of the investment funds for their own personal use. The victims never received a return on investments other than minimal "interest" payments derived from other victims’ money.

The FBI and the Arizona Corporation Commission conducted the investigation in this case. The Financial Crimes and Public Corruption Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, Tucson, handled the prosecution.