SEATTLE — A Seattle area man could be facing more than a decade in prison after pleading guilty Friday to fraud and money laundering.
28-year-old Keenan Gracey lived in Newcastle when investigators said he defrauded investors out of millions between June 2016 and May 2018.
According to the Department of Justice, the former Eastside resident scammed at least $5.8 million from people right here in Washington state and around the country.
According to court documents, Gracey played himself off as the picture of wealth and had the materials to seemingly back it up. Gracey posed as a British billionaire who had special access to millions of shares of "pre-IPO" stock for a company that in reality, he had no ties to.
To create the illusion, Gracey rented estates worth millions of dollars in Clyde Hill, Mercer Island, Beverly Hills, and San Diego. He also rented fleets of luxury cars like Bentleys, Rolls Royces, Mercedes and Lamborghinis, and told investors the houses and cars belonged to him, court documents said.
His pitch was so convincing, one family provided Gracey with nearly $600,000 over the course of five months.
Gracey bounced around from rental properties, splitting his time between Washington state and Los Angeles. In December 2018, his scam came to an end when he was arrested by the FBI.
As it turns out, Gracey isn't British, but rather a Canadian citizen who for now is trading his mansions for a jail cell.
Gracey remains in a Federal Detention Center in Seattle, where he awaits sentencing.