{"id":5681,"date":"2014-08-22T13:38:23","date_gmt":"2014-08-22T20:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=5681"},"modified":"2014-08-22T13:39:20","modified_gmt":"2014-08-22T20:39:20","slug":"judge-defendant-just-con-man-sentences-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=5681","title":{"rendered":"Judge to Defendant “You’re Just a Con Man” and Sentences Him to Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN DIEGO<\/strong> – A former executive of Anturion Limited, \"L\"<\/a>a company formed in the Channel Islands, was sentenced\u00a0on Thursday to 46 months\u00a0prison for \u00a0bilking investors of more than $2 million by selling them counterfeit and forged Anturion securities, authorities said.<\/p>\n

Svein Erik Ulsteen, 50, used the investor funds to pay for his personal entertainment and living expenses\u2014such as yacht and BMW payments\u2014rather than to operate Anturion, officials said.<\/p>\n

Ulsteen, of San Diego, was also sentenced in a separate case with corruptly preventing the Internal Revenue Service from determining his true tax liability, and attempting to cheat the IRS out of almost $400,000 in lawfully owed taxes, officials said.<\/p>\n

Svein Erik Ulsteen who has been in custody since December 2013 attempted to board a plane and leave for his home country of Norway, officials said.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge M. James Lorenz rejected Ulsteen\u2019s request to be released from custody today, commenting that Ulsteen\u2019s sole motivation to commit his crimes was to benefit himself, and \u201cthere are too many victims out there that have lost everything because of your greed. Now it\u2019s time to make the defrauded public whole,\u201d authorities said.<\/p>\n

The judge also rejected Ulsteen\u2019s attempt to characterize himself as a credible businessman, and instead commented, \u201cYou\u2019re just a con man.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to court evidence, between October 2011 and June 2013 , Ulsteen solicited investors by pretending to either: \u00a0Sell them shares of Anturion stock or borrow money on behalf of Anturion, which would be paid back with interest.<\/p>\n

Ulsteen, however, was neither authorized to sell company stock nor borrow money on its behalf.<\/p>\n

As part of his con, officials said Ulsteen created fake \u201csubscription agreements\u201d and phony \u201cloan\u201d documents that purported to be authentic securities of Anturion.<\/p>\n

Using these counterfeit securities, Ulsteen convinced investors throughout the United States to send more than $2 million to Ulsteen\u2019s nominee accounts.<\/p>\n

Personal Luxury Expenditures<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ulsteen admitted that instead of transferring these investments and loans to Anturion, he took the money for himself:<\/p>\n