New Jersey Man Sentenced To 42 Months For $9 Million Fraud

United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, announced today that ARSEN LUSHER was sentenced to 42 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Dale E. Ho for perpetrating a scheme to defraud more than 20 investors of nearly nine million dollars. On August 18, 2025, LUSHER pled guilty to one count of wire fraud.

"Today's 42-month sentence comes at the end of a too common story: a fast-talking fraudster promising exceptional returns but not giving investors basic information," said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. "Arsen Lusher lied to victims about the nature of his business to line his own pockets. When the walls came closing in, Lusher doubled down, creating false documents to try to lull his victims into a false sense of security about their investments. Lusher's fraud was brazen, and it cost his victims nearly $9 million. A good rule of thumb for investors: no audit, no investment."

According to the charging documents and other filings and statements made in court:

From at least 2017 through at least February 2021, the defendant engaged in a scheme in which he and his associates solicited investments from victims, usually by representing that the defendant had a profitable trucking business that enjoyed delivery and installation contracts with multiple large retailers. The defendant and his associates typically represented that the victims' investments would fund the purchase of trucks and guaranteed the victims high rates of return over a fixed period-typically between 30 and 40 percent over one or two years. In that way, the defendant succeeded in raising approximately more than $40 million from his victims during the scheme. But the defendant did not have a large trucking business, and he did not invest the victims' money into any trucking business. Instead, the defendant paid earlier victims with later victims' funds, sustaining the scheme for years.

While he was stealing money from the victims, the defendant lived a lavish life. For example, the defendant gambled millions of dollars at casinos and online, winning as much as $100,000 in a single sitting. The defendant also used funds from his companies' corporate bank accounts to finance personal expenses. On a trip to China in April 2019, the defendant spent thousands of dollars in a high-end shopping spree, including a $3,210.76 charge from a Louis Vuitton store and a $12,932.24 charge at a Hermès store in Hong Kong. The defendant paid those expenses from his business bank accounts. During the scheme, neither the defendant in his personal capacity nor any of the companies that the defendant used to perpetrate the scheme filed federal tax returns.

After years of fraud, in late 2020 and early 2021, the scheme collapsed, leaving the victims with losses of at least $8,740,440. As the scheme came crashing down, the defendant created numerous false documents and caused them to be shared with his victims for the purpose of continuing to solicit investments and lulling victims into a false sense of security with respect to their investments. For example, in January 2021, the defendant created and caused to be sent to a particular victim ("Victim-1") a falsified email, in which the defendant altered account balances for two of the companies that the defendant used to perpetrate the scheme that had been reported to the defendant by an employee from a particular bank ("Bank-1"). The email that the defendant received from Bank-1 is shown below left; the email that the defendant altered and caused to be sent to Victim-1 is below right. Instead of "8,767.26," and "$320.76," the defendant altered the email to state that his companies had account balances of $1,228,767.26 and $987,320.76 (italics and bold added).

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In addition to the prison term, LUSHER, 49, of Millstone, New Jersey, was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $8,740,440 in forfeiture and $8,740,440 in restitution.

Mr. Clayton praised the outstanding investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

This case is being handled by the Office's General Crimes Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Rosenberg is in charge of the prosecution.