Recidivist Felon Robert Stinson Of ‘Life’s Good’ Pleads Guilty To 26-Count Ponzi Indictment, Faces Decades In Prison
Robert Stinson Jr., the Philadelphia-area recidivist felon and securities swindler accused last year of stealing $17 million in a Ponzi scheme and wiring money to prevent it from being seized even as the FBI was conducting a raid, has pleaded guilty.
Stinson, 56, of Berwyn, faces a maximum under federal sentencing guidelines of nearly 34 years in prison, federal prosecutors said. In his most recent scam, he pleaded guilty to nine counts of money laundering, five counts of wire fraud, four counts of mail fraud, three counts of filing false tax returns, two counts of obstruction of justice, two counts of making false statements to federal agents and one count of bank fraud.
Investors in various entities under Stinson’s Life’s Food Inc. were wiped out, and Stinson stole $17 million, prosecutors said.
In 1986, Stinson was convicted of wire fraud and larceny in U.S. Court in Delaware, according to records. In 1987, he was convicted of forgery and larceny in New Jersey state court. During the same year, he was convicted of mail fraud in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile, in 1996, he was convicted of criminal conspiracy in state court in Pennsylvania. In 2001, he was convicted of bank fraud in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Stinson filed two bankruptcy petitions in 1999, one in October and another in December, according to records.
Nine years earlier, in 1990, he was charged with fraud by the SEC. He was ordered to pay a judgment of $7,680, but the judgment remains unpaid, according to court filings.
Dear Patrick,
I was named as a defendant in a civil suit brought against me by the SEC and case closed with a judgment against me in the amount of $81,000 dollars that I received from Robert Stinson, Jr.
I had an intellectual property that I was working on from August 2009 through May of 2010 with a deliverable date in 2010 that I was never to complete for a subsidiary??? entitled The Eclipse Channel when Life’s Good, Inc.’s offices were shut down by the FBI in June of 2010.
I want to offer an apology to all of the investors who’s funds were partially appropriated towards my work. I had no knowledge that Robert L. Stinson was suspect of running a ponzi scheme nor did I ever question where the funds I received each month by wire transfer were suspect of criminal activity.
I am also writing my side of this story in a blog so that I can publicly apologize to the investors who lost their money/savings and/or retirement accounts in this Ponzi Scheme.
Sincerely,
Leela Hutchison