St. Johns County man indicted for $2 million fraud scheme

Date: July 30, 2025

Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov

Jacksonville, FL — United States Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe announces the return of an indictment charging Eric James Stone (St. Augustine) with 10 counts of fraud (wire and mail) and 5 counts of money laundering. If convicted, each fraud charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison and each money laundering charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison.

According to court documents, Stone was fired from Fidelity Investments in June 2021 due to allegations that Stone had solicited and obtained loans from his clients. After Stone was terminated, he began to solicit money from his former clients by way of personal loans. Stone promised to repay the loans but never did. After one victim provided loan proceeds to Stone, she was advised that there was an investigation into the funds and Stone had incurred costs and fees that also needed to be paid before Stone could repay her. Stone created fake email accounts, sent fake text messages, and pretended to hire attorneys to further defraud the victim. In total, the victim paid Stone more than $2 million that he used to fund gambling activities, personal travel, and satisfy personal debts.

An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.

This case is being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service—Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation with assistance from the United States Postal Inspection Service, the United States Secret Service, the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, and the Florida Department of Corrections. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney John Cannizzaro.

IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) is the law enforcement arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 19 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.