Victims of a Ponzi scheme in Orange County were given the opportunity to speak during the sentencing phase for a man who was convicted on 693 felony counts for defrauding more than 125 seniors out of their life saving in a Ponzi scheme.
Jeffrey Gordon Butler, who was convicted in June of stealing more than $11 million from elderly investors through the illegal sale of unqualified promissory notes or stocks and filing false tax returns on his ill-gained profits, said Farrah Emami, a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney’s office.
Butler, 51, was found guilty by a jury on charges of making untrue statements in selling securities and unqualified securities, theft from elderly people, using a scheme to defraud in the sale of a security, filing false tax returns from 2001 to 2004 and failing to report income of more than $5.5 million, resulting in an unpaid tax liability of more than $530,000.
He faces a maximum sentence of more than 300 years in state prison.