Everett Reiten

A retired stockbroker was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to two years in prison for defrauding an elderly multimillionaire who for years ignored stock accounts worth up to $16 million. Judge Edward Rafeedie also ordered Willard R. Walls Jr. of Huntington Beach to return $503,000 to the estate of Everett Reiten, who died last year in Wisconsin after spending much of his life in Long Beach.

A retired stockbroker was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to two years in prison for defrauding an elderly multimillionaire who for years ignored stock accounts worth up to $16 million. Judge Edward Rafeedie also ordered Willard R. Walls Jr. of Huntington Beach to return $503,000 to the estate of Everett Reiten, who died last year in Wisconsin after spending much of his life in Long Beach.

A 65-year-old retired stockbroker was convicted Monday on federal charges that he siphoned nearly $500,000 from the stock accounts of Everett Reiten, an eccentric multimillionaire who spent much of his life in Long Beach before he died in Wisconsin last year at age 92. A U.S. District Court jury found Willard R. Walls Jr. of Huntington Beach guilty of 12 counts of mail and securities fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property.

A 65-year-old retired stockbroker was convicted Monday on federal charges that he siphoned nearly $500,000 from the stock accounts of Everett Reiten, an eccentric multimillionaire who spent much of his life in Long Beach before he died in Wisconsin last year at age 92. A U.S. District Court jury found Willard R. Walls Jr. of Huntington Beach guilty of 12 counts of mail and securities fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property.

Everett Reiten was a man of few words and even fewer revelations. When his family found out shortly before his death last year at age 92 that the retired Long Beach stockbroker had a fortune worth as much as $16 million, the news came from a network television show, not Reiten.

The 89-year-old sister of a reclusive, penny-pinching multimillionaire from Long Beach testified in federal court recently that she never knew him to have a checking account or even use credit cards. "He was a very thrifty person. He held onto his money," Nancy Bainbridge said, referring with a chuckle to her late brother, Everett Reiten, who died last year in a Wisconsin nursing home at age 92. "He gave me $50 for my birthday and $50 for Christmas--no large amount.

Everett Reiten was a man of few words and even fewer revelations. When his family found out shortly before his death last year at age 92 that the retired Long Beach stockbroker had a fortune worth as much as $16 million, the news came from a network television show, not Reiten.