$126 million fraud lands former executive a 100-year sentence

By Terry Frieden
CNN Justice Producer

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The scope of the investor fraud perpetrated by convicted business executive Edward Okun may not compare to the massive ponzi scheme operated by Bernie Madoff, but his sentence handed down Tuesday does.

Okun, a former Miami, Florida, businessman, was sentenced to 100 years in prison by a federal judge in Richmond, Virginia, Tuesday for defrauding several hundred clients out of an estimated $126 million.

Madoff, by comparison, was sentenced five weeks ago to 150 years in prison for defrauding his clients of more than $50 billion.

In Okun's case, prosecutors said they wanted a sentence that would assure he'd spend the rest of his life in prison, and they got it. Okun is 58.

The government said more than 300 families lost their entire life savings, and hundreds more lost substantial sums. "It is difficult to overstate the blatant breach of trust and the wanton greed he displayed," prosecutors said in their sentencing request.

The government said unlike Madoff's scheme, Okun did not promise to invest his clients' money, but simply to hold their funds safely in bank and escrow accounts.

A jury in a three-week trial in Richmond in March convicted Okun on 23 counts of financial fraud. "Despite his promises to these victims, Okun used almost $40 million of client exchange funds as his personal piggy bank to, among other things, fund his divorce settlement [and buy] a jet, a helicopter, a 131-foot yacht, multimillion dollar homes and jewelry for his new wife," prosecutors told the judge.

"Today's sentencing provides a measure of justice for those who lost so much to Okun's deceit," said Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer in a statement released at the Justice Department in Washington.

Attorneys for Okun said they will appeal the jury verdicts.