Batavia financial adviser gets 6½ year prison sentence for duping investors

A Batavia man working as a financial adviser received a 6½ year prison sentence for defrauding investors while on court-supervised release for a previous federal fraud conviction.

Ralph Rogers III, 63, was accused of promising to invest clients’ money in a bevy of business opportunities, only to use their funds for “his own personal benefit, including for travel, hotel rooms, jewelry, apparel and gym fees. He also made Ponzi-type payments to lull earlier investors,” prosecutors said.

Between 2021 and 2023, prosecutors said Rogers convinced clients to invest their money in purported business opportunities, including fiber optic cable installation, computer chip manufacturing for Tesla and a fitness recovery studio.

He ultimately pleaded guilty to wire fraud.

As part of his guilty plea, he is required to repay nearly $240,000 to the clients he bilked.

He was running these schemes despite a prior fraud conviction and preyed on those around him, prosecutors said.

“Defendant is a serial fraudster who, through both sophisticated and unsophisticated means, pursues every opportunity to victimize any person who comes into his orbit,” prosecutor Kristin M. Pinkston argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “Defendant selects his victims from his immediate environment: His gym, the local bicycle store, the local smoothie shop, the hotel bar where he is a guest, the restaurant where he is dining, the relatives of his romantic partner. He will defraud anyone he can.”