{"id":49750,"date":"2022-05-10T19:55:11","date_gmt":"2022-05-11T02:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=49750"},"modified":"2022-05-10T19:55:11","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T02:55:11","slug":"a-former-california-sheriffs-deputy-guilty-of-scamming-victims-out-of-5-6-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=49750","title":{"rendered":"A Former California Sheriff’s Deputy Guilty of Scamming Victims Out of $5.6 Million"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"A former San Bernardino County sheriff\u2019s deputy plead guilty to multiple felonies for deceiving victims into investing at least $5.6 million, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Christopher Lloyd Burnell used the money on extravagant gambling, taking private jet airplane rides and buying luxury items for his girlfriends, the\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Burnell, 51, of Highland, plead guilty on Monday to 11 counts of wire fraud and two counts of filing a false tax return.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Burnell spent victims\u2019 money on, among other things, gambling and luxury items, including losing more than $2 million in gambling at the San Manuel Casino in Highland, $500,000 in private jet trips, $70,000 on Louis Vuitton merchandise, and $175,000 on luxury cars and an apartment lease for his then-girlfriends, the trial memorandum states. <\/span><\/p>\n

Burnell continued this investment fraud scheme for years until he could not identify new victims to defraud and the money from his victims ran out.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Burnell caused victim-investors to distribute at least $5,672,380 to him, according to court documents.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"\"According to court documents, Burnell falsely claimed to have accumulated tens of millions of dollars from lawsuits he purportedly won against the San Bernardino County Sheriff\u2019s Department and Kaiser Permanente from selling a patent for an air-cooled, bullet-resistant vest to Oakley Inc. through investments in small businesses and money-lending opportunities. <\/span><\/p>\n

The scheme began between November 2010 and\u00a0 September 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"white After deceiving victims into believing he was a wealthy businessman, Burnell then induced victims to invest up to hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time with him by offering exclusive investment opportunities that promised rates of returns as high as 100% to be repaid in a few weeks, according to prosecutors\u2019 trial memorandum. <\/span><\/p>\n

In some instances, Burnell asked the victim for an initial trial investment with him, during which he would fulfill his promised returns \u2013 and gain the victim\u2019s trust \u2013 only to ask for a larger amount from them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"brown But these investment opportunities did not exist. Rather, Burnell spent the money on maintaining a life of luxury.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As victims began to raise concerns to him about a lack of repayment and defaults, Burnell claimed that his money had been tied up in a trust fund and his remaining assets had been seized by federal authorities. <\/span><\/p>\n

He cheated some of the victims out of additional funds by falsely claiming he needed loans to pay for his then-wife\u2019s cancer treatment, a child custody dispute with his father-in-law, and other personal expenses.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To alleviate victims\u2019 concerns, Burnell showed many victims a fabricated Wells Fargo bank statement that said he had more than $150 million in his account that he would use to pay back victims once his funds were no longer tied up, officials stated.<\/span><\/p>\n

In truth, Burnell had less than $6,500 in that account.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Burnell did not report any of the money he received from victims in 2011 or 2012 on his personal income tax returns that he filed jointly with his then-wife. Instead, Burnell only reported income from gambling winnings in 2011 and 2012 \u2013 estimated to be more than $1 million \u2013 all of which was purportedly offset by gambling losses.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald has scheduled an August 15 sentencing hearing<\/span><\/p>\n

Burnell faces up to 20 years in federal prison for each wire fraud count and up to three years in federal prison for each tax count.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 IRS Criminal Investigation and the United States Secret Service investigated this matter.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES A former San Bernardino County sheriff\u2019s deputy plead guilty to multiple felonies for deceiving victims into investing at least $5.6 million, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. Christopher Lloyd Burnell used…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3255],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-federal-court"],"yoast_head":"\nA Former California Sheriff's Deputy Guilty of Scamming Victims Out of $5.6 Million<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"LOS ANGELES A former San Bernardino County sheriff\u2019s deputy plead guilty to multiple felonies for deceiving victims into investing at least $5.6 million,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=49750\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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