REDDING -- A Redding man described as the architect of a Ponzi scheme that swindled scores of investors out of an estimated $250 million was convicted Monday by a Shasta County Superior Court jury.
James Stanley Koenig, 60, was convicted on 35 of 36 felony counts, including securities fraud, as well as two counts of first-degree burglary.
Koenig, who shook his head in disbelief and rubbed his forehead as the verdicts were read, faces about 50 years in prison when he's sentenced on June 11.
Koenig was taken into jail custody while awaiting sentencing. Caroline Chen, a prosecutor with the state Attorney General's Office, praised the jury for its verdicts.
"I really respect what the jury has done," she said.
Shasta County Senior Deputy Public Defender Mike Horan declined to discuss the verdicts after the court proceedings were over.
In perhaps the longest trial in Shasta County history, jurors began their deliberations on Wednesday following a trial that spanned more than three months.
State prosecutors alleged Koenig did not disclose his company's default on loans for some properties in the company's portfolio - an omission they said occurred so as to lure fresh investment money needed to keep up payments to investors already onboard.
Koenig was arrested in 2009 with two Sonoma County men following a 17-month state investigation into the Ponzi scheme.
Koenig's former co-defendant Gary Armitage, 62, of Santa Rosa, took a plea bargain earlier this year and was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison. But he must serve only 50 percent of that sentence before being eligible for parole and is also being credited with the approximately two years he spent in jail following his arrest.
Armitage pleaded no contest to conspiracy to commit a crime, fraud and sale by false statement and also admitted to special allegations of excessive loss.
Another former co-defendant - Jeffrey A. Guidi, of Santa Rosa - struck a plea deal with prosecutors in April 2010 in an agreement that did not include prison.
Courtesy of The Record Searchlight. Read more at http://www.redding.com
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