A southwest suburban man was found guilty on seven counts of wire fraud Friday for bilking investors out of more than $100 million through his website development business, The Income Store, which federal prosecutors alleged was a Ponzi scheme.
Kenneth Courtright, a polished pitchman who operated The Income Store out of his Minooka home, lured more than 500 investors with promises of high annual returns in perpetuity if they paid a six-figure upfront fee used to build and operate websites, according to the February 2020The jury verdict followed a seven-day criminal trial in Chicago federal court. A separate civil complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission against Courtright and The Income Store is ongoing.
The Income Store created and operated more than 3,100 mostly obscure websites, ranging from KeepingCarsClean.com, a waterless car washing e-commerce site, to HoneyBeeStings.com, an ad-supported site for beekeepers. In December 2019, Courtright’s scheme became unsustainable and he notified investors via email that the company would put a temporary “moratorium” on the payment of returns due to unspecified “challenges and headwinds,” the criminal complaint alleged.
Courtright spent some of the investor funds to pay his mortgage and school tuition for a family member, the criminal complaint alleged.
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