Man sentenced to 90 years in Ponzi scheme

SANTA ANA, Calif., Jan. 6 (UPI) -- A California man who cheated 124 elderly investors out of more than $11 million received a 90 year, eight month, prison sentence, court records indicated.

The sentencing in Santa Ana, Calif., of Jeffrey Gordon Butler, 51, of San Juan Capistrano -- who was convicted in June of 694 felony counts of stealing by illegally selling unqualified securities and filing fraudulent tax returns -- culminated one of the largest elder-abuse cases ever tried in Orange County, the Orange County Register reported Tuesday.

Butler bilked 124 elderly investors of the money through a Ponzi scheme, the Register reported.

"I've never known a man who can look you straight in the eye and lie. He didn't show any compassion for his victims or what they've been through," one of Butler's victims, Larry Schiel, told the court.

Butler prepared wills and trusts for his clients, gaining their confidence before luring them into giving him their retirement money in exchange for promises of investment returns of as much as 12 percent annually, Orange County Deputy District Attorney William Overtoom said.

Butler then used the money in a typical Ponzi scheme, in which later investors' money is used to pay benefits to earlier investors, the Register reported.

Butler was arrested in February 2006 and had been held in custody since then, the newspaper said.