United States vs. Keenan Gracey

Case Number:  Gracey 19-cr-00001-RSM

Case Summary:  Between 2016 and December 2018, Keenan Gracey posed as a British billionaire with degrees from the London School of Economics and Oxford University.  He drove expensive cars such as Bentleys and Ferraris and claimed to own expensive homes in Clyde Hill, Mercer Island, and Newcastle, Washington, as well as in Beverly Hills and San Diego, California.  Gracey also used falsified bank statements to make it appear he had hundreds of millions of dollars of cash on hand.  The investigation revealed that Gracey is Canadian, not British, and rented expensive homes and cars to make it appear he was wealthy.

           Gracey told potential investors he had special access to millions of shares of “pre IPO” stock that would produce returns of as much as 60 times the initial investment.  Some investors gave Gracey as much as $745,000, believing that they were purchasing stock.  In fact, Gracey did not own any of the stock he was pretending to sell, and simply stole the victims’ money.  According to the indictment, investigators have identified more than 25 investors who transferred over $5.5 million to Gracey through bank wires.

            The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil suit against Gracey in May 2018 and obtained a temporary restraining order barring him from selling securities.  In September 2018, the order was made permanent and Gracey was ordered to disgorge $4.4 million in cash and wire transfers that he had fraudulently obtained from investors. 

Defendant(s):  Keenan Gracey

Court Dates: 

Initial Appearance:  January 11, 2019 @ 2:00 p.m. Courtroom 12B

Arraignment:  January 19, 2019 @ 1:30 Courtroom 12B

                       August 1, 2019 @ 9:00 a.m. Courtroom 12B

Change of Plea:  August 15, 2019 @ 2:45 p.m., Courtroom 12B

Detention Hearing:  February 25, 2019 @ 10:15 am Courtroom 12B

                                 January 31, 2019 @ 10:15 am Courtroom 12B

Trial:  Trial Continuation:  October 7. 2019 Courtroom 13206

          Trial March 19. 2019 Courtroom 13206

Sentencing:  November 15, 2019 @ 9:30 a.m., Courtroom 13206       

Court Documents:

            Indictment:

            Superseding Indictment: U.S. vs Grace Superseding Indictment

            Detention Memorandum: 

Other Documents:

            Victim Questionnaire:

Press Releases:

https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/fbi-arrests-former-washington-resident-who-fraudulently-promoted-ipo-stock-scheme

https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/former-washington-resident-pleads-guilty-wire-fraud-and-money-laundering-fraudulent-ipo