U.S. Attorney’s Office recovers approximately $700,000 for victims of Kalispell fraudster

BILLINGS — The U.S. Attorney’s Office recently recovered approximately $700,000 for victims of a Kalispell man who defrauded investors in a multi-million-dollar scheme involving oil and gas leases and artwork, U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich said today.

The defendant, John Kevin Moore, also known and Kevin Moore, of Kalispell, was convicted in August 2018 by a federal jury of 21 counts of wire fraud, money laundering and false statement crimes and sentenced in 2019 to more than 10 years in prison, ordered to pay more than $2.2 million in restitution and to forfeit more than $1.9 million.

“In addition to obtaining a federal prison sentence, the collection of restitution for victims of fraud is essential in the pursuit of justice, although it is often difficult to obtain restitution because the fraudster usually spends all the money. Here, however, through the extraordinary dedication and hard work of our financial litigation team, we were able to track down and recover a significant amount of money for victims of Moore’s fraud and prevent Moore from benefiting from the sale of a ranch in which he had invested,” U.S. Attorney Laslovich said.

In seeking to collect restitution, the U.S. Attorney’s financial litigation division asserted its restitution lien against Moore’s interest in a ranch in Valley County held by Moore’s now-dissolved business, Milk River Hunting Preserve, LLC. Through a civil settlement reached in U.S. District Court in July, the government secured approximately $700,000 in restitution for the victims in Moore’s criminal case from the proceeds of the sale of the ranch.

At Moore’s criminal trial, the government presented evidence that Moore set up two companies, Big Sky Mineral Resources LLC and Glacier Gala, and used them to solicit money from investors by purporting to buy oil and gas leases and to buy and sell lucrative artwork. Instead, prosecutors alleged, Moore used investors’ money to pay off earlier investors and to pay for personal expenses, including payments on multi-million-dollar properties. Moore received more than $2 million from victims based on false claims he made regarding the mining of oil and gas and minerals and the sale of art.

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