A debonair Manhattan con man who swindled investors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars using a “wealthy” alter ego will serve between three and nine years behind bars for his crimes.
Ian Mitchell, 37, posed as the investment banker scion of a well-heeled Jamaican family to pull off the scheme — which eventually netted him about $700,000 from friends and associates between 2017 and 2018, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
On Wednesday, Mitchell — who pleaded guilty in New York State Supreme Court last month to grand larceny and bail jumping — was slapped with a sentence that will put him in state prison for at least three years.
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“Ian Mitchell defrauded his friends and associates out of approximately $700,000 by claiming to be from a wealthy, prominent family,” Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg said. “Those who impersonate others to steal hard-earned money will be prosecuted.”
At the heart of his money-grabbing plot was a fake identity, Ian Matalon, that Mitchell assumed while pretending to be a member of the prominent Matalon family of Jamaica.
Mitchell told friends and associates that he was the independently wealthy manager of the family hedge fund — and from October 2017 to the following November, said he had access to unique investment opportunities of which they could be a part.
He convinced one person to invest more than $200,000 by telling them he could buy real estate and cannabis businesses through his family’s connections — and he used a similar scam to soak another victim for $300,000 by claiming he had access to pre-initial public offerings on WeWork and Dropbox, Bragg said.
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Mitchell used the same public offering story to convince a third investor to rake up $200,000 from several other victims on his behalf, the office said.
“He was good at what he did,” said Brett Steigh, a California restaurateur who gave Mitchell $44,000 to invest in January 2018.
“He painted the picture well. What can I say? He got me.”
Instead of investing the money, Mitchell used it to cover his own expenses.
“He’s a con man. He’s friendly and, you know, an a- -hole,” said another of his victims, an Air Force veteran who met Mitchell through a friend who also lost thousands of dollars.
He ducked his court case for several years by failing to appear for a January 2020 court appearance and staying on the lam until March 2023, when he was finally arrested on federal charges out of the US Attorney’s Office.
He pleaded guilty in that case as well, and a federal judge sentenced him to 44 months in prison last July, the Westfair Business Journal reported.
Mitchell also made headlines in March 2023 when he threatened to jump from a 20th-floor window of a Manhattan skyscraper as the FBI served the warrant.
He retreated off the ledge hours later, but barricaded himself inside the apartment — until an NYPD officer rappelled down the side of the 72-story CitySpire condo complex, climbed into the suicidal man’s home and subdued him.
