BULLETIN: Philip Lochmiller Sr., 64-Year-Old Recidivist Huckster And Ponzi Schemer, Effectively Sentenced To Life In Prison
BULLETIN: Philip Lochmiller Sr., the Colorado recidivist securities huckster and Ponzi schemer whose case drew comparisons to the AdSurfDaily Ponzi case for a lack of key disclosures to investors, has been sentenced to 405 months in federal prison and ordered to pay restitution of $18.6 million.
The term amounts to nearly 34 years. Lochmiller is 64. He was taken into custody immediately by the U.S. Marshals Service upon his sentencing, federal prosecutors said.
U.S. District Judge Philip A. Brimmer presided over the case.
“Make no mistake,” said U.S. Attorney John Walsh of the District of Colorado. “Today’s sentence, which amounts to a life sentence, demonstrates that those who rob with the pen and the computer cannot evade the painful consequences of their crimes. Although this sentence can’t by itself undo the damage suffered by the many victims of this fraudulent scheme, justice was done.”
All in all, the scheme attracted more than $30 million and affected more than 400 investors, prosecutors said.
“Today’s sentencing provides 403 citizens victimized by Philip Lochmiller Sr some justice for the devastating financial losses he caused with deceit and misrepresentations,” said James Yacone, FBI special agent in charge.
Added Sean Sowards, special agent in charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation Unit in Denver: “IRS Criminal Investigation will work with our law enforcement partners to vigorously pursue and hold accountable those who perpetrate these schemes to get rich quick at the expense of honest Americans.”
Lochmiller’s stepson — Philip Lochmiller Jr. — also was implicated in the scheme. So was Shawnee Carver, an employee of Valley Investments, a company linked to Lochmiller’s Valley Mortgage Inc. entity.
Lochmiller Jr. earlier was sentenced to eight years and ordered to pay $18.6 million in restitution. Carver was sentenced to two years and ordered to pay $2.5 million in restitution.
Lochmiller and two members of his family were sentenced to prison for their roles in a California securities swindle in the 1980s, according to records. The 1980s scheme operated in the Greater San Diego area and resulted in 1,600 investors being bilked out of a total of $5 million.
Investors in Lochmiller’s most recent scheme were not told about his previous felony conviction, prosecutors said. Nor were they told about a bankruptcy filing.
Like Lochmiller, ASD’s Andy Bowdoin shielded investors from knowing he had been implicated in an Alabama securities swindle in the 1990s and had pleaded guilty to a felony, according to court filings.
At the same time, ASD investors were denied information that Clarence Busby, a key Bowdoin business associate, had declared bankruptcy and had been implicated by the SEC in three prime-bank swindles in the 1990s, according to records.
Another two time looser! When are we going to get a national fraud registry? We do it with sex offenders. These people are just as dangerous.
Isn’t that what talkgold com is?
The level of disingenuousness at TalkGild is worth considerable study by experts in criminal psychology. As you and others have pointed out before, the script never varies — from the opening post to the ultimate collapse of the scheme.
The core disingenuousness — something you’ve pointed out before — is that “programs” that are OBVIOUS, FIVE-ALARM, RED-FLAG scams during all phases of their lives only get memorialized as scams after they collapse and are placed in the Scams folder.
Within days or even hours, another OBVIOUS, FIVE-ALARM, RED-FLAG scam rushes in to fill the void, sometimes using the name or approximation of the name of a previously collapsed, OBVIOUS, FIVE-ALARM, RED-FLAG scam.
Hell, some punter over at TalkGold today is advertising that he has 642 referrals for JustBeenPaid, all while publishing the names of some of his downline members and potentially exposing them to legal jeopardy.
This gentleman, it seems, uses U.S. hosting. — and his current JBP cheerleading post is taking place against the backdrop of the lengthy prison sentences doled out this week to Kautilya Nandan Pruthi, “Britain’s Bernie Madoff,” and Phil Lochmiller Sr. of Valley Mortgage in Colorado.
Those two combined got 48 years
It is willfull blindness, to be sure.
Patrick
There seems to be a willful suspension of belief. In the scheme where I filed the involuntary Chapter Seven Bankruptcy, the victims met for several weeks trying to figure out how to restart the fraud.
After the ponzi scheme was safely in the grasps of the bankruptcy court, I was talking to an elderly gentleman. He asked me how much interest was being promised and I told him 125% annually. He shook his head and said “That’s too rich for me.”
It sounds cruel but the one way I know to make people think about what they are doing is to sue the net winners. I’m sure there are people who think they can get in and get out. The law has to take away that incentive and when cleaning up these messes make certain that all of the investment victims bear the loss equally. That is the only way I know of to make people think about the implausibility of the investment scheme.
IM(very)HO, that’s the crux of the problem.
There ARE people, particularly “insiders” who CAN ‘get in and get out”
Just as there ARE naive people who genuinely believe a golden eagle has landed on their shoulder.
There ARE people who know exactly what they’re getting into and are prepared to gamble/take the risk.
And, there ARE people who have absolutely no clue they’re involved in anything but a legit. operation.
The situation is as it is.
AFAIC, the danger is when those outside the situation pretend to “know” the motivation/s of the victims and judge the fraud and fraudsters accordingly.
403 Lochmiller victims and they’re all the “same”
I don’t think so.
I know it is cruel to sue the naive but that is the only way to get people to stop and think.
As for the people who think they can get in and out, they deserve to be dinged.
As for the people who know what they are doing, the court system should exact a penalty. What I would do is sue them for the principle as well as for the purported interest.