United States of America v. John Frances “Jack” Griffin

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with wire fraud.

John Frances “Jack” Griffin, 62, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was the principal and founder of Second Story Farming Inc., which did business as Metropolis Farms. Second Story Farming had several lines of business, including growing crops in vertical farms to sell to customers, developing sustainable vertical farming technologies, and selling vertical farming systems to customers. Vertical farming refers to a practice of growing crops indoors vertically in horizontally stacked layers to reduce the amount of space needed.

In 2017, Griffin, through Second Story Farming, sold vertical farming systems along with the equipment, supplies, materials, and operational instructions necessary to operate them, to two companies. Before doing so, Griffin provided financial projections to them that grossly overstated the anticipated revenues that could be generated by the vertical farms and grossly understated the anticipated expenses necessary to operate them. The purchasers relied on those projections when they bought the vertical farms from Griffin.

Rather than use those funds to provide them with vertical farms he promised, Griffin used most of the money to pay, among other things, his own personal expenses, such as his mortgage and clothes from Nieman Marcus.

From 2015 through 2018, Griffin received more than $650,000 in income from his work at Second Story Farming. Despite earning this income, Griffin did not file tax returns for any of those years. Instead, Griffin tried to conceal that he received income, by, among other things, withdrawing cash from his personal and business bank accounts, paying personal expense from his business’s bank accounts, and transferring funds from his business to his wife.

This case was investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation, the FBI, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Francis Weber and Trial Attorney Catriona M. Coppler of the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Tax Section.

The Defendant was found guilty and was sentenced to 36 months in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release, was assessed $300, and was ordered to payh $899,948.00 in restitution.