Ex-Gladwyne Furniture Heir Imprisoned For Bilking Investors To Fund Lavish Lifestyle

PHILADELPHIA — A furniture heir from Gladwyne was sentenced Wednesday to nearly a decade in prison for bilking investors out of millions, forging documents, and blackmailing a former employee whose name he forged as he funded a lavish lifestyle he couldn't afford.

Josh S. Verne, who most recently lived in Florida, presented himself as a wealthy and successful businessman while carrying out fraudulent activities through a series of limited liability companies he controlled, according to U.S. Attorney David Metcalf.

During this time, Verne misused business and investor funds for personal expenses he couldn't afford, such as private-jet travel, renovating his Jersey Shore vacation property, contributions to political candidates and country club payments.

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Last March, Verne pleaded guilty to nine counts of wire fraud, three counts of securities fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft.

Raised in Huntingdon Valley, Verne's family founded furniture company Chuck's Bargain House in the 1960s, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. The company was later renamed to Home Line Furniture Industries and grew to have factories in Philadelphia, Italy and Vietnam.

Verne, now 48, began working for Home Line in the 2000s, before the company folded in 2011.

He then founded Workpays.me LLC — an employee payroll-deduction purchasing program — and FlockU, a digital media outlet geared toward college students, the Inquirer says.

From 2017-20, Verne lied to investors about his prior business successes, personal net worth and his personal investments, Metcalf said. For instance, he forged a Goldman Sachs statement showing holdings of more than $50 million when he didn't even have a Goldman Sachs account.

At one point, Verne forged his former employee's signature on a sales agreement to disguise an unauthorized sale of the employee's shares of stock. He obtained $150,000 from the scheme, which he gave to himself and a prior investor.

After Verne met with FBI agents and learned details about the investigation, he contacted the former employee and threatened to spread lies about him because he cooperated with law enforcement.

Verne was sentenced Wednesday to 9 years, 3 months in prison, three years of supervised release, forfeiture of $12.2 million and a $1,300 special assessment.