Man gets 14 years in fraud case

A Johns Island man will spend 14 years in prison for bilking hundreds of customers out of millions of dollars through a fraudulent online furniture business he ran from North Carolina earlier this decade.

Also, Henry Rayford Privette, 55, was ordered by a federal judge Tuesday to pay restitution of more than $1.12 million, though it's unclear whether any of his estimated 600 victims will ever see any of their money.

Privette was taken immediately into custody and has requested through his attorney to serve his prison term at Bennettsville Federal Correctional Institute in the Pee Dee region, according to prosecutors.

U.S. Attorney George Holding said in a statement that Privette "defrauded many innocent customers out of their money as part of a complex fraud."

Privette, who in recent years had been building homes on Seabrook Island, was found guilty of 10 counts of wire fraud in August after a trial in North Carolina. He had faced up to 20 years in prison and fines of $2.5 million.

Holding called the sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Terrence W. Boyle in Raleigh "a just result."

Privette was charged in late 2007 with running an Internet-based furniture scam between 2000 and 2003 in Calabash, N.C., that defrauded hundreds of customers in sales totaling "millions of dollars," prosecutors said.

Privette, who was forced out of the furniture business in South Carolina about nine years ago under suspicion of fraud, was arrested in the latest case in Charleston in 2007.

Privette did business under several corporate names, including Carolina Furniture Inc., carolinafurniture.com, Henry Ray Furniture Export Inc., Carolina Furniture Factory Direct from High Point N.C. Inc. and Miller Burns International Home Furnishings Ltd.

Authorities said he solicited sales on a Web site, took orders over the telephone and required immediate deposits, usually half of the sale price. With the cash in hand, Privette deliberately kept buyers at bay by giving them various excuses about their late shipments, a grand jury said in its November 2007 indictment.

In examples cited in the court document, the orders never were delivered and no refunds were provided.

Privette, who sometimes used the alias Ray Picard, apparently moved his furniture operation just across the border to Brunswick County from Myrtle Beach shortly after being barred from selling in South Carolina. To settle the previous case, Privette signed a consent order in January 2000 agreeing to refund the down payments and cease operations in the Palmetto State. He filed for bankruptcy in 2003.

Privette entered a new line of work two years later, when he was issued the first of two state licenses to build and work on residences in South Carolina.

He operated under the name Sunset Builders Custom Homes LLC, which is based on Johns Island. The state Residential Builders Commission suspended his licenses last month based on Privette's criminal conviction and various violations of South Carolina law. He and his company are named as defendants in several unresolved lawsuits in Charleston County.

According to Raleigh television station WRAL-TV, assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Murphy said Tuesday that after Privette went into the contracting business, he failed to complete work on home projects after collecting deposits.

"He has never completed one whole set of dreams that he has gotten money from people to do," Murphy said Tuesday. "Unfortunately, Henry Privette is just a con man. He is a con man and will always be a con man."

Reach John McDermott at 937-5572 or jmcdermott@postandcourier.com.