Preston North End bidder Chris Kirchner indicted and faces up to 180-year federal prison sentence

Kirchner, 35, who had an offer to purchase PNE accepted last year, had his home raided by the FBI in February and was charged via criminal complaint. On Tuesday, a federal grand jury indicted him on five counts of wire fraud and eight counts of money laundering.

For each count of wire fraud he is charged with, he could face 20 years in prison and for each count of money laundering he could spend 10 years behind bars, bringing the total potential sentence up to 180 years if found guilty on all counts.

Kirchner had been ousted from his company Slync at the start of the year amid allegations of misconduct after it was reported that he had misrepresented the company’s finances. He had once claimed the company was making near to $30m but the reality was it was close to $1m. He was suspended as CEO before being fired and removed from his role as chairman. Employees who raised concerns over his running of the company, and misrepresentation of the finances, were also fired by Kirchner prior to his departure.

The American tried to by PNE in February 2022, agreeing a price with the Hemmings family before attempting to submit two reduced offers after his exclusivity period had run out. This came after a failed attempt to buy Derby County, who he again tried to buy after being turned away from Deepdale, another failure.

“Rather than focus on growing his fledgling business, Christopher Kirchner allegedly swindled investors out of millions of dollars he used to fund a splashy lifestyle – then allegedly attempted to cover his tracks by conning even more investors and by firing employees who dared question him,” U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton said on his indictment. “Investors deserved honesty; instead they got chicanery. We will not allow businesspeople to treat their stockholders this way. We look forward to proving our case against Mr. Kirchner in court.”

FBI Dallas Special Agent Chad Yarbrough said: “As the indictment alleges, Mr. Kirchner chose to enrich himself by diverting corporate assets away from Slync in order to fund his lavish lifestyle. Deceptive acts of corporate greed not only erode investor confidence and employee trust, but also financial market integrity. If you deceive and defraud your investors and employees, the FBI will persist in our efforts to bring you to justice.”

According to the indictment, Kirchner allegedly converted at least $25 million in investor money to his own personal use. Allegedly wiring $20 million directly from Slync’s Silicon Valley Bank account into his personal checking account. He transferred money from Slync’s bank account into one only he had access to, and into personal accounts, using the money on things such as ‘a $16 million private jet and to secure a luxury suite at the stadium of a Dallas-area professional sports team’.

After being removed from Slync, he also allegedly attempted to delete approximately 18 gigabytes of Slync data, including emails.