Michael Reps, Kiwi who stole $23.5m in gold and silver from his 90-year-old dad, is sent to jail in US

Michael Reps was sentenced on Monday at a courthouse in Lincoln County, Wyoming. Photo composite / Sam Hurley, Dean Purcell

A former New Zealand company director has been sent to prison in Wyoming after reportedly stealing millions of dollars of precious metals from his elderly father.

Michael Reps earned infamy in New Zealand for financial register misuse, and a Financial Markets Authority (FMA) lawyer called him a “gun for hire”.

But now he faces at least four years in a Wyoming prison after pilfering millions in precious metals from his dad, according to Cowboy State Daily in the United States.

“It’s difficult to pinpoint the total value of the theft because of fluctuating precious metal prices, though early investigative reports placed it at around US$14 million [NZ$23.5m],” the news outlet reported.

“Reps pleaded no contest to one count of felony theft in April and accepted a plea agreement limiting his potential prison term to four and a half years.”

Cowboy State Daily said a prosecutor called the theft a treacherous, deceitful, calculated breach of trust, and a “caper” with some stolen metals still unrecovered.

But Reps reportedly indicated his father’s love interest was the one to be concerned about.

“Speaking on his own behalf, Reps indicated he was driven to desperation over fears that his father’s longtime girlfriend was influencing his father,” the Wyoming website said.

“He said there were signs his father was cutting Reps’ disabled siblings off from needed financial help.”

Reps was jailed after the hearing in Casper, a city of about 60,000 people in central Wyoming.

In 2018, Reps and Pegasus Markets Ltd were charged with breaching financial service provider rules.

The FMA accused the company of falsely claiming on two websites that it was registered on the Financial Service Providers Register for more than two years.

Reps in 2021 appeared for a court hearing via videolink from Queenstown.

He said he accepted guilty verdicts for two charges in that case and wanted to pay back his “debt to society”.

Around that time, he was travelling from his home in the Southland town of Lumsden to Gore to complete community work.

In March 2021, he was sentenced to two months’ community detention and 90 hours’ community work.

The FMA at the time said the conviction meant Reps could not be a financial services firm director for five years.