Investment Fraud

A federal judge Tuesday sentenced Silicon Valley financier William "Boots" Del Biaggio III to more than eight years in prison for bilking investors and banks -- including one he helped launch -- out of millions of dollars in a desperate attempt to buy a pro hockey team. The disgraced scion of a prominent San Jose family is to report to prison in January, capping a long fall for a former high roller who counted hockey great Mario Lemieux as a golfing buddy and who jetted on private planes to Las Vegas, where he amassed a $4-million gambling debt.

Michele Wein Layne decided on a career change 17 years ago when she was at her office at 10 p.m. poring over a mind-numbing legal document. Layne was an up-and-coming corporate litigation lawyer at a big Los Angeles law firm. But the grueling hours and unrewarding work left her miserable. She wanted something more meaningful, and soon after joined the Securities and Exchange Commission's local office as a lawyer fighting investment fraud and insider trading. After a series of promotions, she was chosen last month to lead the 150-person office.

An Orange County man who claimed he wanted to revive production of America's first motorcycle has been convicted of bilking investors in his Indian Motocycle scheme out of $830,000. A U.S. District Court jury deliberated for less than three hours Monday before finding Philip S. Zanghi II guilty of 12 counts of securities fraud, three counts of tax evasion and six counts of money laundering. Judge Frank Freedman scheduled sentencing for Zanghi, 51, of Mission Viejo, for Dec. 9.

Any doubts Paul Sarkozy had about investing his life savings--about $600,000 of the settlement from an auto accident that left him a paraplegic--with John Rinaldo vanished after the glib moneyman hosted a dinner party for Sarkozy at a splendid house in Newport Beach. Set on a golf course behind security gates, the home dazzled Sarkozy, an Eastern European refugee unaccustomed to elegance. "I was impressed," Sarkozy said. "He was a man of means."

It's a good thing Nancy Silverton still has her day job. The La Brea Bakery founder and queen of L.A.'s restaurant scene is among the legions of investors who've lost their fortunes in the alleged $50-billion fraud attributed to New York financier Bernard L. Madoff. The financial pain is bad enough, Silverton says, but what makes it worse is that she ignored the advice of her father and others who warned her to diversify her investments.

R. Allen Stanford, the Texas billionaire charged Tuesday with perpetrating an $8-billion investment fraud, cast himself as offshore investment guru to the transatlantic jet set and benefactor to the Caribbean islands' poor through multimillion-dollar promotions of their beloved sport of cricket.

Steven D. Wymer, the Newport Beach investment adviser who stole $92 million from clients, was sentenced Tuesday to 14 1/2 years in prison for what prosecutors said was one of the nation's biggest and most devastating financial scams. It was a victory for prosecutors, who had said Wymer should serve 15 1/2 to 19 1/2 years. In pleading guilty and agreeing to pay $92 million in restitution, Wymer had asked for a sentence of less than 10 years.

Despite a strong show of support from Steve Garvey and a handful of victims, a former Cal State Fullerton baseball player who hired the onetime Dodgers star to promote his mortgage company was sentenced Monday to five years in prison for stealing $32 million from more than 200 investors through a real estate scam. An apologetic Salvatore "Sam" Favata also was ordered by U.S. District Judge Andrew J. Guilford to compensate his victims at a rate of $10,000 a month when he is released from prison.

A Bell Canyon man was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison Monday for running a commodities futures trading firm that defrauded investors out of more than $95 million, prosecutors said. Zvi Leichner, 33, was also ordered to pay about $95 million in restitution to 296 victims in addition to his 135-month prison term, the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles said in a statement.

Two former Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. executives defrauded investors by improperly accounting for $1.5 billion in revenue in 2000 and 2001, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Monday. Frederick Schiff, former chief financial officer for the No. 5 U.S.