Anthony Gignac did not merely tell investors that he had money. He presented himself as a member of the Saudi royal family, surrounded by the visible signals that made the claim seem plausible: guards, diplomatic-looking credentials, expensive property and demands for gifts that he described as royal protocol.
Case brief
Miami, Florida · 2015–2017; chronology to verify
- Recorded outcome
- Pleaded guilty in May 2018; sentenced to 224 months in federal prison on May 31, 2019.
Key moments
People in this case
Anthony Gignac Pleaded guilty in the federal fraud case
Booking photograph · Miami-Dade County via Wikimedia Commons · U.S. public domain
The claimed identity was part of a business proposition. He offered access to investments supposedly available through his status and connections. According to the federal prosecution, those opportunities brought in approximately $8 million while the promised investments failed to materialize. [1]
The fraud depended on a circular impression. A wealthy-looking prince seemed capable of opening exclusive doors. Money supplied by investors helped sustain the wealthy-looking prince.
The identity came with props
Gignac used the name Prince Khalid Bin Al Saud. The name was an impersonation, not evidence of genuine Saudi government or royal affiliation.
The federal sentencing account described counterfeit diplomatic license plates, a diplomatic security badge and bodyguards. He also used social media to reinforce the role, including references to the Saudi king as his father.
The details worked together. A title might invite questions; a title supported by documents, an entourage and expensive surroundings could make a prospective investor feel that the verification had already occurred.
Gignac also invoked supposed rules of royal etiquette to obtain costly gifts. In the government's account, the gifts were not a cultural explanation for legitimate business conduct. They were part of the false identity through which he induced people to provide valuables.
Nothing in the conviction required accepting his claims about how Saudi royalty actually behaved. What mattered was how he used those claims to persuade others that he possessed an identity and access he did not have. [1]
A company for the investment pitch
In 2015, Gignac and a co-conspirator created Marden Williams International LLC. The business provided a vehicle through which potential investors could be approached with apparently substantial international opportunities.
The offerings were varied: an Irish pharmaceutical business, a casino in Malta, hotels, jet fuel and an interest connected with Saudi Aramco. Their range supported the larger story that Gignac moved within a world of privileged access.
Prosecutors said the money was not invested as represented. Instead, the operation used the false royal persona and fabricated support for the claimed opportunities to obtain funds. [1] [2]
A proposed overseas transaction can be difficult for an investor to examine directly. The impersonation supplied an answer to that difficulty: trust the person who supposedly had the connections. The supposed reason to trust him was itself the central falsehood.
The range of businesses also kept the scheme from depending on one particular investment. What linked the opportunities was the person claiming to provide them.
Paperwork supported the performance
Gignac did not rely entirely on appearances. The federal account described forged letters and other materials purporting to come from high-ranking Saudi figures.
Such documents could appear to corroborate what the impostor said. In fact, they were part of the same fabricated account. A document carrying an impressive name did not provide independent confirmation when the person seeking the investment had manufactured it.
The distinction separates this case from an ordinary investment that failed after an accurate disclosure of its risks. The prosecution concerned misrepresentations about identity, authority and where the money would go.
The visible wealth also concealed its own source. The Justice Department described spending on luxury vehicles, yachts, jewelry, travel and a Fisher Island condominium. Those purchases supported Gignac's lifestyle while helping maintain the impression of a person who did not need to deceive anyone for money. [1]
The appearance of success became another part of the solicitation.
Another identity at the airport
The criminal case also involved a different use of someone else's identity. On November 19, 2017, Gignac used a passport in another person's name at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.
That conduct was separate from the invented royal role, but it reinforced the case's central problem: the identity presented in a document or an introduction did not necessarily identify the person using it.
The resulting prosecution included aggravated identity theft as well as offenses connected with the impersonation and fraud. The final case therefore concerned both a sustained persona used to raise money and a specific misuse of an actual person's identity. [1]
The performance meets a different audience
The investigation described by the Diplomatic Security Service began with an August 2017 tip about a supposed prince seeking to purchase a prominent Miami Beach hotel. The agency had particular reason to examine the claimed official status: counterfeit diplomatic plates and a badge purporting to represent its own service were among the props associated with Gignac. Those objects made assertions about authority that investigators could check. [3]
The airport arrest was accompanied by a search of the Fisher Island residence. Investigators later searched storage and safe-deposit spaces with consent. The agency reported jewelry, cash and false official-looking items among the seizures. These were not all equivalent evidence. A piece of jewelry could be an asset to trace; a counterfeit badge directly concerned the identity being performed. Neither category alone established every investor's loss. [3]
A guilty plea that did not remain in place
The prosecution's path included a reversal missing from many short accounts. Gignac initially pleaded guilty on May 25, 2018. On August 23, that plea was withdrawn after he raised complaints about his representation. A superseding indictment followed on January 11, 2019. The withdrawal is a procedural event, not a finding that the investment claims had been true. It also means the initial plea cannot be described as the uninterrupted basis of the eventual sentence. [2][3]
Gignac pleaded guilty again on March 26, 2019. [4] The May sentencing announcement then reported the conviction and punishment. The gallery separates the false status symbols, the investment payments and the court chronology so readers can follow three different questions: how credibility was manufactured, where the money went and which proceedings ultimately produced a conviction. No reproduced seal, passport or signature is offered as an authentic exhibit. [1][3]
The plea and sentence
The renewed proceedings culminated in a conviction and sentence. [1]
On May 31, 2019, a federal judge sentenced him to 224 months in prison. That equals 18 years and eight months. The sentencing announcement described approximately $8 million obtained through the scheme. [1]
The sentence was imposed after a guilty plea, not simply after an accusation that an unusual lifestyle looked suspicious. The distinction matters because eccentricity, expensive possessions or a claimed connection do not themselves prove fraud. Here, the criminal proceedings established the deception through admitted conduct.
The sentencing release scheduled a separate restitution hearing. Its announcement should not be read as a final accounting of what every victim later recovered.
What made the false identity valuable
The scheme sold more than a financial return. It sold entry: access to powerful people, scarce opportunities and a level of business where ordinary verification could be made to feel unnecessary or impolite.
Gignac's title, guards and fabricated documents all supported that proposition. The investors' money then supported the spending that made the proposition look credible.
The guilty plea brought those pieces back into one account. The apparent royal standing was an impersonation. The promised access was unsupported. The money had financed the person offering the deal.
The distinctive feature of the case is how thoroughly the identity and the investment pitch depended on each other. Without the prince, the opportunities lost their claimed authority. Without investors supplying money, the prince's expensive world lost part of its funding.
Look closer · 3 visuals
Inside the evidence.
Open a visual to explore what it contributed to the case—and the limits of what it shows. These original illustrations explain the record; they are not photographs of the actual evidence.
The borrowed appearance of authority
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
False official-looking items formed part of the royal and diplomatic performance investigators examined.
Generic crossed-out shield; not a usable replica, official seal or actual badge.
Investment money and private spending
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
The criminal account connected false business claims with money used to sustain Gignac’s lifestyle.
Conceptual flow, not a real bank statement or complete accounting of every victim.
One withdrawn plea, one later conviction
Original editorial illustration — not an actual evidence photograph or exhibit.
Read the evidence notes
The first plea was withdrawn before renewed proceedings and the later sentence.
Procedural context. Withdrawal did not establish innocence; the sentence did not rest on an uninterrupted 2018 plea.
★ Key evidence used in a conviction · ✓ Exclusion or reversal · ◇ Disputed evidence · ⊘ Excluded at retrial · ◆ Identity / investigative finding, not a conviction. A symbol does not mean one item proved the whole case.
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Open the map in its own window ↗Sources & further reading
- South Florida Resident Sentenced for Impersonating a Member of the Saudi Royal Family224-month sentence, fake identity, investment fraud, gifts, forged materials, passport offense and spending.
- South Florida Resident Pleads Guilty to Impersonating a Member of the Saudi Royal FamilyMay 25 plea, Marden Williams International, false investment opportunities and admitted impersonation.
- Diplomatic Security Service: investigation and renewed Gignac chargesAgency account: investigation, searches, August 2018 plea withdrawal and January 2019 superseding indictment. Archive intermittently unavailable; indexed text reviewed.
- Miami Herald: Gignac enters a renewed guilty pleaDate of renewed plea only.
Editorial review: 2026-09-30 · 1251 words