A Groton man who admitted to defrauding a Chicago company of more than $3.6 million while selling jewelry on the internet was sentenced Monday to 48 months in federal prison.

Gerald Kent, 52, former owner and operator of Kent's Jewelry in Johnston, R.I., had pleaded guilty in December 2017 in U.S. District Court in Providence to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

According to court documents, Kent executed a fraud scheme while selling his company's jewelry on the internet, primarily using websites such as Groupon.com and Zulily.com. Kent submitted fraudulent invoices to JD Factors, a Chicago debtor financing or "factoring" company that buys accounts receivables at a discount.

Kent created hundreds of fraudulent invoices and submitted them to the factoring company, from which he received payments, according to the government. He created and used a fraudulent clone of Groupon Inc.'s website; enlisted co-conspirators to pose as Groupon employees; and opened bank accounts in the names of Groupon and Zulily Inc. in order to deceive the debtor finance company into believing it was receiving payments from these companies.

U.S. District Judge William E. Smith also ordered Kent to serve three years of supervised release upon completion of his term of incarceration and to pay restitution in the amount of $3,609,228.13.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lee H. Vilker and John P. McAdams.