P. v. Montecastro CA4/2
For two years, defendant and his partner ran a Ponzi scheme that stole approximately $30 million from would-be investors.
A jury convicted defendant of 304 counts involving 27 victims. The counts covered a wide range of violations such as grant theft by false pretenses, securities fraud, acting as a broker-dealer, as well as 93 enhancements relating to the taking of property. In January 2014, the court sentenced him to a total of 81 years and 8 months in prison. Defendant was also required to pay restitution in the amount of $6,041,800.18 as well as court operations and facilities assessment fees. Defendant appealed.
On appeal, we agreed with defendant’s claim of insufficient evidence of the sale or offer to sell a commodity to support seven counts of commodity fraud and reversed the convictions on those counts. (People v. Montecastro (Oct 7, 2015, E060533) [nonpub. opn.] pp. 2, 39 (“Montecastro I.).)
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