Utah man sentenced in smartphone scheme that defrauded investors out of $10 million

SALT LAKE CITY — A 60-year-old Utah man was sentenced in federal court on Monday to 29 months in jail after he admitted to defrauding hundreds of investors out of $10 million in his smartphone company — SAYGUS.

According to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice, it is the second time this year that Chad Leon Sayers has been sentenced for cheating other people out of money.

The release further states that 15 months of his imprisonment must be served consecutively to his current sentence of 41 months in prison.

The sentence also includes 12 months of supervised release. Additionally Sayers is ordered to pay $10,250,834.53 in restitution.

On the brink

Between 2006 and 2010, Sayers lied to roughly 300 investors, telling them that SAYGUS was on “brink of a multi-billion-dollar pay-out,” the release stated. He was able to convince them to invest $10 million into his company.

According to the release, Sayers said he was creating a smartphone named the “V” phone and then later the “V-Squared.” He told the investors that a well-known wireless company had agreed to sell its phones. Furthermore, Sayers claimed that investors could potentially receive 100 times their original investment.

Sayers said the money would go toward research, design and manufacturing of the new phone.

For more than a decade, according to the release, Sayers spent invested funds on personal loans, personal credit card bills, personal rent and personal legal fees among other things.

On 26 different occasions, Sayers went to social media to claim the smartphone would be launching on a certain date, when it never did. He even sent out newsletters to the investors updating them of the latest developments, the release states.