Riley Graham

Introduction

Riley Graham, 60, also known as David Drake, was found guilty by a federal jury of conspiring to commit wire fraud on October 15, 2026, following a five-day trial before U.S. District Judge Marcia A. Crone in the Eastern District of Texas. The fraud, prosecutors proved, was run from inside prison: Graham was an inmate at the low-security correctional facility of the Bureau of Prisons Federal Correctional Complex (BOP-FCC) in Beaumont, Texas, when he and others devised and executed a scheme that defrauded victims of over $1.4 million.

Background Information

According to information presented in court, from June 2019 through October 2024 Graham conspired with others to defraud people he had access to from behind bars, including a Beaumont pastor, the pastor’s family, and the owners of a North Carolina construction business. The release notes that Graham had previously been convicted of perpetrating a federal fraud scheme, and that he began the new scheme to defraud those around him — including a fellow inmate and that inmate’s family. The scheme is described in the release as an investment fraud scheme carried out during his imprisonment.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted. A federal jury convicted Graham of conspiracy to commit wire fraud on October 15, 2026, after a five-day trial; he was separately a previously convicted federal fraudster at the time the conduct began.

The jury’s verdict covered the June 2019 to October 2024 conspiracy: while serving time at the Beaumont federal correctional complex, Graham worked with outside and inside collaborators to take in more than $1.4 million from victims, among them a local pastor and his family and a North Carolina construction business’s owners. The conduct overlapped almost entirely with his prior federal sentence — the scheme began while he was already incarcerated for an earlier fraud — and continued through his October 2024 transfer out of the conduct period described in the release.

Public Reaction and Consequences

Graham now faces a maximum statutory sentence of up to 30 years in federal prison, a potential fine, and restitution at sentencing. The release cautions that the maximum is provided for informational purposes, with the actual sentence to be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. The case was investigated by the FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Bureau of Prisons — the latter being the agency whose own facility housed the scheme.

Current Status

Graham awaits sentencing, which will be scheduled after the completion of presentence investigations by the U.S. Probation Office. The conviction stands as a jury verdict on the wire-fraud conspiracy count; no sentencing date had been announced in the release. Assistant U.S. Attorneys John B. Ross and Chris Jackson prosecuted the case, announced by U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Graham’s second federal fraud conviction converts what was already a life constrained by imprisonment into an even longer one: with up to 30 years available on the conspiracy count, his existing sentence could be extended well beyond any release date his first conviction implied. The case also documents the reach an inmate can still exercise from a low-security facility — access to a fellow inmate’s family, a pastor, and business owners — and the multi-agency response that paired the FBI, IRS-CI, and HSI with the Bureau of Prisons itself to prove it.

Sources

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Texas, “Federal inmate convicted of using his time in prison to defraud local family and others” — source