A Highland man who as soon as labored as a San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy was sentenced Tuesday to 14 years in federal jail for defrauding buyers of greater than $7.5 million.
Christopher Lloyd Burnell, 51, claimed to have accrued a number of million dollars from lawsuits he purportedly received in opposition to the Sheriff’s Division for on-the-job accidents and Kaiser Permanente for medical malpractice, and for promoting to Oakley a patent on an air-cooled, bullet-resistant vest.
He pleaded responsible to 11 counts of wire fraud and two counts of submitting a false tax return in Might.
From 2010 to 2017, Burnell deceived victims into believing he was a rich businessman earlier than convincing them to speculate a whole lot of 1000's of dollars into “unique funding alternatives,” promising excessive return charges that may be repaid in just a few weeks, in accordance with the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace.
To additional persuade sufferer buyers, Burnell produced a fabricated financial institution assertion that confirmed he had funds of greater than $150 million.
In actuality, he had lower than $6,500 in that account.
Burnell would inform buyers once they started to point out doubt in his fraudulent enterprise ventures that his cash had been tied up in a belief fund and his remaining belongings had been seized by federal authorities. In some situations, he even claimed he wanted to pay for his then-wife’s most cancers therapy, a toddler custody dispute together with his father-in-law and different private bills.
He then spent the investments on playing and luxurious gadgets, together with shedding greater than $2 million in playing on the San Manuel On line casino in Highland, $500,000 in non-public jet journeys, $70,000 on Louis Vuitton merchandise, and $175,000 on luxurious vehicles and an house lease for his then-girlfriends.
Not one of the cash he obtained from victims in 2011 or 2012 was reported on his private earnings tax returns that he filed collectively together with his then-wife. As a substitute, he solely reported earnings from playing winnings in 2011 and 2012 – estimated to be greater than $1 million – all of which was purportedly offset by playing losses, in accordance with the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace..
His scheme would proceed for years till he didn't swindle new buyers, and his beforehand acquired funds ran out.
On prime of his jail sentence, Burnell was ordered to pay greater than $7.5 million in restitution – the quantity that was swindled from buyers, together with from their retirement and different financial savings and funding funds.