Kevin Patel

Introduction

Kevin Patel, a 40-year-old resident of Pelham, New Hampshire, has been indicted on three counts of wire fraud for allegedly running a purported investment company that federal prosecutors call a Ponzi scheme. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Hampshire, Patel founded a company he named Royal Investments in 2018 and billed it as “The Company of Wealth & Trust,” soliciting approximately $2 million in investments from friends and acquaintances on the promise of guaranteed, risk-free annual returns of 12 to 16 percent. The indictment alleges he never invested the money at all: instead he misspent it on personal expenses and payments to family members, repaid earlier investors with newer investors’ money, and ran out of funds to repay anyone once new money stopped arriving — leaving his investors with losses of several hundred thousand dollars.

Background Information

Ponzi schemes borrow the language of legitimate investing — promised returns, a company name, a track record — while the only actual business is the recycling of new victims’ money to old ones. The wire-fraud statute is the standard federal charge for such schemes because solicitation and payment flows move electronically, and each count carries up to 20 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater. Patel’s indictment was announced by U.S. Attorney Erin Creegan, with the FBI leading the investigation and the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office providing assistance. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander S. Chen is prosecuting the case.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Indicted; not convicted. The charges are allegations, and Patel is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

According to the indictment, Patel founded Royal Investments in 2018 and gave it the slogan “The Company of Wealth & Trust.” He solicited approximately $2 million in investments from friends and acquaintances by telling them he would invest their funds in the stock market, and he guaranteed risk-free annual returns between 12 and 16 percent — returns no legitimate stock-market investment can guarantee. Royal Investments, the indictment alleges, was a Ponzi scheme.

Rather than investing the funds, Patel is alleged to have misspent them on personal expenses and payments to family members, and to have repaid his investors with new investors’ funds — the defining mechanic of a Ponzi scheme. When he stopped attracting new investors, the money to repay previous investors ran out, causing them several hundred thousand dollars in losses. The three wire-fraud counts now charged carry a combined maximum exposure of 60 years in prison. Patel has not yet appeared in federal court; the announcement states he will do so at a later date.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The case reached the public only as a charging announcement: no statement from Patel or an attorney for him appears in the release, and no court appearance date had been set when the indictment was announced. The victim profile is the pattern fraud prosecutors warn about most — the scheme drew its approximately $2 million from friends and acquaintances rather than strangers, meaning the people closest to Patel allegedly financed the operation and absorbed its losses. The consequence at this stage is the indictment itself, the wire-fraud counts with their 20-year-per-count maximum, and an FBI investigation that remains the lead probe with state securities-side assistance from the Secretary of State’s office.

Current Status

As of the announcement, Patel stands indicted on three counts of wire fraud in the District of New Hampshire and has not yet made his initial court appearance. No plea has been entered, no trial date exists, and the government’s allegations — the guaranteed returns, the recycled payments, the misspent $2 million — remain to be proven. The charging documents themselves carry the presumption-of-innocence language, and the case’s next milestone is Patel’s first appearance in federal court.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Patel’s alleged scheme, if proven, converts a decade of personal trust — the friends and acquaintances who handed him roughly $2 million — into the factual basis for three federal felonies. A wire-fraud conviction at the charged levels would expose him to decades in prison and restitution owed to investors who lost several hundred thousand dollars in total. Even before any verdict, the indictment puts the “Company of Wealth & Trust” on the public record as an alleged Ponzi scheme, and the FBI-led investigation suggests the government believes the loss figures and the investor list are well documented.

Sources

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Hampshire, “Pelham Man Indicted for Running a Ponzi Scheme, Defrauding Investors,” November 5, 2026. source