INDIANAPOLIS (AP) _ A central Indiana man who pleaded guilty to bilking relatives and church members out of nearly $390,000 has been sentenced to 27 months in federal prison.

Forty-five-year-old David H. Essington of McCordsville was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty to wire fraud. 

Authorities say Essington was a businessman who day-traded in the futures market and boasted to family and friends about his prowess as a trader. He convinced 19 people, many of them relatives and fellow church members, to give him money to invest.

Prosecutors say Essington actually invested only $16,000 of the $484,000 those investors gave him to invest in the securities market.

He has returned about $80,000 to those investors, but prosecutors say he spent the remaining $390,000 on himself.