Pair who ran Ponzi scheme with Kings Mountain investment company sentenced

KINGS MOUNTAIN, N.C — The founders of a fake hedge fund were sentenced to prison Tuesday after pleading guilty to stealing millions of dollars from more than 300 people who trusted them.

Austin Page and Brandon Teague, the owners of the Kings Mountain “D&T Investment Group,” pleaded guilty earlier this year to federal charges for orchestrating the $4 million dollar Ponzi scheme.

Channel 9′s Ken Lemon was in the courtroom as they found out their fate Tuesday.

Page was sentenced to eight years in prison and Teague was sentenced to four.

Angry investors lined both sides of the courtroom Tuesday. During victim impact statements, one man pointed at Austin Page and raised his voice, telling the judge, “Don’t believe a word that man says.”

The plea agreement that Teague and Page took in April says they will pay restitution, but attorneys said the investors likely will not get their money back.

John Oglesby was one of the investors in court Tuesday to see the case end in person.

“I came here to make sure they got sentencing,” Oglesby said.

After selling his late father’s home, he took the $50,000 he had made and invested the money with D&T Investment.

“I never make $50,000 in a year,” Oglesby said.

He had planned for that money to go toward his retirement.

U.S. attorneys said instead, Austin Page, the reported mastermind behind the scheme, bought lavish meals, took expensive trips and lived the life his investors thought they might have. They say he and partner Brandon Teague took over $4 million from more than 300 investors.

Page cried in court and he apologized, but Oglesby was still upset.

“I don’t think he had any remorse for what he did,” Oglesby said. “He does now that he got caught. I don’t think he did beforehand while he was spending that money.”

Prosecutors said Page duped his partners, too, showing them documents suggesting the business had $16 million when they had only $7 in their account.

Most of their investors, like Oglesby, lost everything.

“I want my money back,” Oglesby said.

Another man told the judge he had cancer and was investing his so that his wife would be financially secure. Another said the pair took half a million dollars -- his inheritance from his parents which was money meant for his son. He told the judge they stole from the dead and robbed his future at the same time.

(WATCH BELOW: Charlotte man accused in multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme pleads not guilty)

Charlotte man accused in multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme pleads not guilty

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