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.
